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SELF-GOVERNMENT IN LOUISIANA. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. HENRY R. PEASE, 

OW IMISSISSIPFI, 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



JANUARY 25 AND 2G, 1875. 



WASHINGTON: 

COVER NMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1875. 






i 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. HENEY R. PEASE 



The Senate having under consideration the resolution suhmitted hy Mr. Schurz 
on the 8th of Janiiary, diiecting the Committee on the Judiciary to inquire what 
legislation is necessaiy to secure to the people of the State of Louisiana their rights 
of self-government under the Constitution — 

Mr. PEASE said : 

Mr. President, the subject under consideration has developed one 
of the most reraai'kable, and I may say anomalous discussions known 
in the annals of congressional debates. 

On the 5th instant the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Thurman] intro- 
duced a resolution calling upon the President of the United States to 
inform the Senate whether any portion of the Army or any officer or 
soldier thereof had interfered, intermeddled, or in any manner con- 
trolled the recent organization of the Legislature of the State of Lou- 
isiana ; and, if so, by what authority such military intervention had 
taken place. 

For one week we listened to a series of speeches from the democratic 
side of this Chamber, arraigning the President before the American 
people and the world ; denouncing him as a tyrant who had trampled 
under his feet the Constitntion he had solemnly sworn to uphold ; as 
ruthlessly striking down the liberties of the jieople with the mailed 
arm of military power. 

Why, sir, from the fearful pictures drawn representing the dangers 
which menace our free institutions growing out of the President's 
action in Louisiana, characterized by one Senator as "worse than 
oriental despotism," by another .as "Ciesarism," I confess that I was 
somewhat startled, and felt like joining Senators in their righteous 
indignation and appealing to the American people to rise in their 
majesty and hurl the despot from his throne. The senior Senator from 
Delaware portrayed the President as having already folded around 
himself the robes of a military dictator, erected his throne, and, Crom- 
well like, ho might at any time march his soldiery into this Chamber 
and disperse the Senate. From the consternation depicted on the 
countenances of our democratic friends it seemed as if they had indeed 
seen the " mysterious handwriting upon the wall, " and that the days 
of the Republic were numbered. 

The President was not the only victim of this wholesale denuncia- 
tion, but vials of democratic wrath were poured out without stint 
upon the heads of the Secretary of War and the Lieuteuaut-General 
of the Army, the gallant soldier and noble hero, Sheridan. His dis- 
patch of ten lines, clothed not in the guarded diction of a statesman 
or of one learned in constitutional law, but in the language of a prac- 
tical soldier, had caused a howl from the White League bauditti of the 



South, a liiss from tlie coppevliead democracy of the North, and a 
general wail and chimor along the entire rebel line from Tammany to 
Texas. The anomalous feature of the whole proceeding is, that the 
charges preferred against the President, Ai'my officers and soldiers, 
and the wholesale denunciation of the republican party, were based 
upon rumors and partisan newspaper reports. 

There was not a republican Senator who was not ready and willing 
to vote for the resolution without interposing an objection, save in 
the matter of form or phraseology. The Senator from New York [Mr. 
CoNKLiNG] submitted an amendment so as to make the resolution 
conform to the phraseology usually adopted in resolutions of that 
character. I say we were not only ready and willing but anxious to 
obtain the information sought. We were not prepared, however, to 
adopt the plan ]nirsued by our democratic friends — that of condemn- 
ing the President or General Sheridan without a hearing. 

The resolution was adopted; and while the Senate was awaiting 
the response of the I'resident, the honorable Senator from Missouri 
introduced the pending resolution as the basis of an elaborate ora- 
tion, Avhicli the Senator informed us had been prepared in no parti- 
san spirit, but with calm deliberation and studied impartiality. The 
opinions thus formed, and digested in an atmosphere high above party 
strife, he proposed to deliver in mild and temperate language. Occu- 
pying a position serenely above the clouds which obscure the vision 
of less far-seeing statesmen, he had taken in the full situation at a 
glance, and been thus enabled to frame a judgment not to be influ- 
enced by any official facts, nor modified by a more comprehensive 
knowledge of the circumstances. He had tried the President, found 
the condemnation, and proceeded to pass sentence with judicial 
fairness, without a hearing and before conviction. Sir, I submit 
that the Senator's speech was more sweeping in its assumptions and 
more vindictive in spirit than any other democratic speech Avhich 
had preceded it in this dcbatt\ Why, sir, he openly assumed that 
the President had willfully violated the Constitution which he had 
sworn to obey and defend, and pronounced a malediction against 
him without a jf)t or tittle of official information; and this the 
Senator calls calm and dispassionate criticism upon the President's 
action. Such, sir, has been the character of this debate; such the 
animus that seems to have pnmipted it; such the spirit in which it 
has been conducted. And, sir, it is no exaggeration to say that the 
discussion has developed a degree of party passion, of partisan hatred, 
based upon prejudged opinions, and has been characterized by a 
measure of unfairness, bitterness, and recklessness of calumny that is- 
Avholly without precedent in the history of senatorial debate. 

Mr. President, I now pass to the consideration of the questions in- 
volved in tlic Louisiana case, with a profound sense of the magnitude 
and gravity of tl;e interests involved, particularly in its relations to 
the present and futuie welfare of the South. 

Tlie President of tlie United States, promptly responding to the 
resolution of the Senate, has laid before us his message. Tlie char- 
acter and tone of this message have been highly complimented by a 
distinguislied democratic Senator [Mr. Saulsbuuy] on this floor. 
All agree that it contains a fair and full response to the incjuiries 
l)rop()uuded by t'le Senate. 

Instead of any attemj)! being made by the President to interfere 
with the govenuneut ot- Louisiana, to interfere with tlie organization 
of a TiCgislature in tliat State, instead of an attempt to overthrow 
that State governnicnt by military interference, the I'resident did 



iiotliiiig more than Avas required of liim under the Constitution of 
the country and tlie oatli he has taken to support that C<nistitution 
and see that the laws of the country are faithfully executed. It turns 
out by this report that he upheld liberty as af^ainst licentiousness, 
and sustained a law-abidinj:^ majority in the State of Louisiana against 
a lawless minority. It appears that the President, upon the requisi- 
tion of the governor of Louisiana, ordered troops to be sent to that 
State to protect it against domestic violence. 

It appears that in September last a rebellion broke out in the city 
of New Orleans, the object of which was to overthrow the State gov- 
ernment. Eight or ten thousand armed men were in the streets of 
that city setting at defiance the laws of the State, compelling the 
governor to seek refuge in the custom-house to preserve his life ; 
and they maintained this attitude toward the government from Sep- 
tember up to the 4th of January. They held in their possession the 
arms they had stolen from the government; they maintained their 
organization ; they were ready at a moment's warning to spring forth 
again into open revolt and overthrow constituted authority and plunge 
the State into anarchy and revolution. 

I shall not attempt in this discussion to go into the details of the his- 
tory of the State of Louisiana and its government for the last three or 
four years. Suffice it to say that a government has existed in Louisiana. 
It has been a government" republican in form, if not in essence. It has 
had the machinery of a republican government. It has had a gover- 
nor, and that governor has been recognized by the United States Gov- 
ernment as the law^f ul governor of that State. Whether ho was the gov- 
ernor dejure or not, I shall not attempt at this time to argue. I will 
say, however, in passing, that from my knowledge of the situation, based 
not only upon official facts, but also upon personal knowledge and ob- 
servation, I have abelief which amounts to an absolute conviction that 
William Pitt Kellogg and the other State officers of Louisiana, now^ 
recognized by the President of the United States as the legal govern- 
ment thereof, represent the popular will of the people of that State 
as expressed at the polls in the election of 1872; and that they were 
elected by a majority of the votes actually cast, and had the election 
been fairly held woiild have received no less than 20,000 more votes 
than the ticket headed by John McEuery and Penn. The question of 
his election had been expressly passed upon by the highest judicial 
tribunal in the State, and the government of which he was the head 
had been adjudicated to be the legal government of the State. The 
President of the United States, following immemorial usage, had 
recognized that government ; it was also recognized by one branch of 
Congress in the admission of Representatives. 

The President promptly submitted in an official message the fact 
that he had recognized w'hat is known as the Kellogg government, 
with the grounds which prompted such recognition, urging Congress, if 
it-entertained any doubt as to the legal character of that government, 
to take such legislative action as would place the question beyond 
the reach of controversy. It was the duty of Congress under the 
Constitution to secure to Louisiana a government republican in 
form, and either have confirmed the President's action or to have un- 
mistakably affirmed its dissent therefrom. That Congress took; 
such action was at least a tacit confirmation of the President's p^ 
tion, and that the President was bound to recognize the govef'r 
who, under the laws of the State, by the courts of the State, had 
been declared the lawful governor, and was in the actual exercise of 
the functions of the office. 



6 

We turn now to Avliat took place in that State on the 4th day of 
Jannai y, 1875, and here we find an event that has brouglit the demo- 
cratic party all over this country suddenly to their feet. An outcry 
has been raised that a terrible outrage was committed. An attempt 
was made by the General Government to subvert the civil authorities 
of the State with Federal bayonets. Soldiers have entered, it is 
claimed, a legislative hall and prevented the Legislature from organ- 
izing. Now, sir, what are the facts in the case? It turns out that, 
so far from the military attempting to interfere with the organization 
of a Legislature in tlie State of Louisiana, the military were ordered 
by the governor of that State to quell a riot, and preserve the peace. 

Under the law of Louisiana the legislative body consists of those 
men who are elected in the several parishes and the returns of 
whose election have been examined by a board, the duty of which 
is to canvass thoroughly these election retirrus and submit a roll of 
such returns to the secretary of state, and the secretary of state 
is to furnish the old clerk of the house with a copy of these returns. 
Such a copy was furnished to Mr. Vigers, the old clerk of the former 
legislative body, and the Legislature proceeded to organize. 

It appears that on the roll submitted one huu(b-ed and six mem- 
bers of the Legislature had been elected in the several parishes of 
that State. This roll contained the only legal evidence of their elec- 
tion. Through many vicissitudes and dangers, both " by land and by 
sea," the members-elect linally assembled in the place assigned to 
organize the Legislature. They proceede<l according to law to take 
the initiatory steps to an organization. The roll was called and one 
hundred and two members answered to their names. While they 
■were in jirocess of organizing, the clerk of the old house, who under 
the law of Louisiana was occu})ying the position of the j)residing 
officer of tliat body until a speaker should be elected, it appears 
that a member from the parish of Lafourche sprang to his feet and 
placed in nomination one Mr. Wiltz, former mayor of the city of New 
Orleans, as temporary speaker. The law of Louisiana recognizes no 
such proceeding and knows no such officer. The law regulating the 
organization of the Legislature of Louisiana is the same as, copied 
almost verhatim et literatim from, the law regulating the organization 
of the House of Representatives in Congress. Under that law and 
the rules that are adopted the clerk of the former house is the only 
legal presiding officer over that body until a speaker is elected on a 
call of the roll of mcmhers. It appears, I say, that a motion was made 
placing one L. A. Wiltz in nomination for temporarif speaker. I quote 
BOW from the official rejiort of General Sheridan, which is fully cor- 
roborated in all its leading facts by the report of a committee of the 
House of Representatives: 

Vigers promptly decliired the motion out of order at that time, ■when some one 

Sut tlie qurstiiin, aiui, amid chctsrs on the democratic side of tlie lionse, Mr. Wiltz 
ashed on tlio rostrniii, imslu'd aside Mr. "Vigers, seized tlie speaker's chair and 
gavel, and declared Iii)iiscl/ . ■speaker. A protest against this arbitrary and unlawful 
proceeding was promptly made by members of the majority, but Wiltz paid no 
attention to their protests. 

A callfor the yeas and nays was demanded, was duly seconded, but 
violently |)revented, although explicitly recjuired by the constitution 
of the State. The usurjiing Wiltz and his band of co-conspirators 
proceeded with a ])retendod organization of the house. Fifty-two 
members, constituting the majority, subsccpiently withdrew. 

The whole ])roceeding uj) to this point was in clear violation of 
law, and it apjiears from the evidence now before us that this whole 
I)roceeding was a conspiracy ; an attempt to overthrow the existing 



govenimeut in Louisiaua. This appeals from the testimony of a 
gentleman of character, who speaks from actual knowledge. I refer 
to General McMillan, who testitied before the committee that was sent 
fi'om the other House to investigate affairs in Louisiana. He says that 
it was the intention of the democrats to get control in the organization 
of the lower house, and the democratic senators-elect were to join 
the senators elected on the democratic ticket in 1872 and declare 
themselves the senate, and that the lower house and senate thus 
organized in the interests of democracy proposed to declare McEnery 
governor and revolutionize the government. This was the pro- 
gramme. Now, I ask, iu view of the law in the case, in view of the 
fact that this man Wiltz had no more legal right, no more authority 
to act in the organization of that Legislature as temporary chairman 
than you, Mr. President, what becomes of the argument, or clamor 
rather, that has been made against the President of the United States 
and the governor of Louisiaua for attempting to use the military to 
overthrow a Legislature ? The bodj^ presided over by the usurper 
Wiltz was no Legislature within the purview of the law. It was no 
more a Legislature than a body of men assembled at the hustings 
would have been. It was nothing more nor less than a riotous mob 
usurping the powers and prerogatives of a Legislature. 

The honorable Senator from Missouri gravely informs the Senate 
that here was a legislative body, organized at the time and place and 
in the manner provided by law ; and he bases the Avhole superstruc- 
ture of his argument upon this assumption. He has built up a 
showy and shadow structure upon this uncertain foundation, which 
glitters like a prismatic soap-bubble ixpon its watery bed, but which 
shall fade away before the breath of truth and vanish — 

Like the baseless fabric of a vision. 

I ask, Mr. President, if in the light of the facts, which are clear 
as the sun at noonday, it is not evitlent that this Legislature was not 
organized in the manner provided by law, but that it was disorganized 
in violation of law? 

It further appears in the history of this case that when they had 
succeeded in organizing what they called a Legislature, there was 
danger of difficulty in the lobby and about the doors. So imminent 
was this danger that the usni-piug speaker, Wiltz, entertained a motion 
and declared it carried that the troops of the United States should be 
called upon to preserve order. This was done, remember, by a demo- 
cratic speaker of the Legislature of tlmt State. General De Tro- 
briand appeared in answer to this call, and he very quietly requested 
the disorderly persons who surrounded and menaced these patriotic 
white-leaguers to be quiet ; and the mob quieted down. Then it 
appears that this so-called legislative body passed a vote of thanks 
for his action in the case in the name of the State of Louisiana. 

Then it appears in the history of this event that when the major- 
ity of the body, fifty-two to fifty, found that they could have no 
voice, that they were trampled under foot, that all parliamentarj'' 
usage, the constitution, and the laws of the State were ignored, they 
sought protection from the governor of the State. They succeeded 
in getting out of the hall, though an attempt was made to prevent 
them with knives and pistols marshaled in the service of this usurper 
Wiltz. They apjiealed to the governor of the State for protection. 
The governor, when fifty-two members declared to him in writing 
that it was impossible for them to organize a Legislature as required 
by the constitution and the laws of the State, it seems called ujjon 



a military officer to furnisli a posse to protect the members of the 
Legislature in the work of organization. Here is his order : 

State of Louisiana, Executive Department, 

Neio Orleans, January 4. 
General De Tkodriaxp, Commanding: 

An illocal asstmlily of men having taken possession of the hall of the honse of 
reprusfntatives, and the police not being able to dislodge them, I rt'spcctfuUy 
request that you will immediately clear the hall and State-house of all prisons not 
returned as legal members of the house of representatives by the returning board 
of the State. 

"WM. P. KELLOGG, 
Governor of the State of Louisiana. 
In a subsequent order he says : 

The clerk of the house, who has in bis possession the roll issued by the secretary 
of state of legal members of the house of representatives, will point out to you 
those persons now in the hall of the house of representatives returned by the legal 
returning board of the State. 

Here we come to the gravamen of the offense alleged to have been 
committed. The governor of the State, after having been api^ealed 
to by a majority of the legal members of that Legislatiu-e, who 
had represented to him that it was impossible for them to proceed 
with the organization ; that the hall was in the possession of a mob ; 
that men claiming to be members of that Legislature without any 
authority of law were in control of the house, appeals to the mili- 
tary who were present at the State-house to preserve the peace, and 
they j)roceed to the hall and without the use of any unnecessary force 
remove to the lobby five intruders whose votes were revolutionizing 
and overriding the voice of the majority of the Legislative Assembly. 

Another significant feature of this proceeding shows the nature 
and character of the conspiracy that existed. While in the process 
of this sham organization a certain member proposes that they appoint 
additional sergeants-at-arms. That motion is carried, as were other 
motions, by acclamation, and all at once a large number of men, who 
had succeeded^in getting into that hall under one pretext and an- 
other, throw open the lappels of their coats and display badges pre- 
pared beforehand, showing that this whole matter had been concocted 
and that these men were on the spot ready to carry out their part of 
this plot, this conspiracy, this revolution. I quote from General Sher- 
idan's report : 

Wiltz then again, on another nomination from the democratic side of tlie house, 
declared one Flood elected sergeant-at-arms, and ordeied tliata certain numlier of 
assistants be a])iiointed. Instantly a lai-ge numbeiof men througliout the liall, wlio 
had lieen admitted on various ^iretcNts, such as reiuirteis, memliers' friends, and 
spectators, turned down the laiijx^ls of tlieir coats, u]ion wliitli were jiinued blue 
ribbon ba<lgcs on which were ])rinted in g(dil letters "assistant seigeant-at-arnis," 
andtlio assembly was iniiossi-ssionof tlu-minority, andtlie AVliitel.eagueof Louisi- 
ana had made good its tin-eat of seizing tlie liouse, many of tlie assistant sergeants- 
at-arms being well known as captains of Wliito League companies in this city. 

General Sheridan further adds : 

Notwithstanding the suddenness of this movenu^nt, the leading repulilican mem- 
bers had not failed to protest again and :igain against tlie revolutionary action of 
the rovolutiopary minority, but all to no ]>ur]iose, and many of the republicans rose 
and left the house in a body. * * * Tlu' excitenunt « as now very great. The 
acting speaker directed the serge;int-atarms to i)rivcnt the ingress or egress of 
members or otlicis, ami several exciting scuttles, in wliicli knives and jiistols were 
drawn, took jilace, and for a lew moments it seemed tliat bloodshed would ensue. 
* * * lic]>ublicans liad now generally witlidrawn from the hall, and united in 
signing a petition to the governor, stating their grievances and asking his aid. 

In view of these facts the governor of the State of Louisiana waa 
perfectly justiiied in using all legal means within the scope of his 
])owers to preserve the peace, to see that the laws were faithfully exe- 
cuted. 



9 

I challenge any Senator on this floor who is learned in the law to 
show me that the President of the United States, in the exercise of the 
powers and duties devolving upon him as defined in the Constitution, 
did anything more or less than he was required to do. I challenge any 
Senator to show that General Sheridan, who seems to have been made 
the special target for White League venom and democratic denunci- 
ation, has transcended his powers or his duties, or that General 
Emory or General De Trobriand has disobeyed in any respect the 
law of the land. The whole question reduces itself to one single 
issue : Had the governor of the State of Louisiana the legal right to 
summon as a posse the military to preserve the peace in that hall 
and allow the Legislature to proceed under the laws of the State to 
organize ? 

Now, sir, I take the broad ground that the governor of that State 
had full authority to summon the military as a civil posse in snch an 
emergency to suppress riot and disorder or prevent a breach of the 
peace. 

As to the proposition that the governor, as the chief executive offi- 
cer of the State, and therefore chief conservator of the peace, had the 
right to issue such an order, we have only to presume that in doing 
so he exercised a power incident to his office in an exigency, of which 
exigency he is the sole judge, andwhich could not be properly met by 
the ordinary means within his reaehor under his control by calling out 
the posse comifatus, the jiower of the county. Notwithstanding it may 
be the general impression that the power to call out the posse comitatus 
is limited to sheriffs or their baililis, marshals, and officers of the like 
character, yet we have only to refer to the best commentaries upon 
the common law to find that such limitation upon the exercise of 
the power is not sustained by authority. In Bacon's Abridgment, 
which as an authority upon common law cannot be questioned, we 
find this power is not only allowed the sheriff, but is likewise given 
to his bailiff" or other ministers of justice; also a constable or even a 
private person may assemble a competent number of people in order 
with force to suppress rioters and afterward with such force actually 
to suppress them. So also we find that a justice of the peace who 
has just cause to fear a violent resistance may raise tlie posse in mak- 
ing an entry or detaining lands. In this authority we find that the 
power is not limited to slieriffs, their bailiffs, and officers of like char- 
acter, but extends to all ministers of justice, constables, and justices 
of the peace, and that a power, if not the same, equal in extent is 
given to tlie private citizen to sui)press riotous proceedings. No one 
after reading this autliority can for a moment doubt that the highest 
. executive officer of a State, sworn to uphold the law, can properly 
exercise it in an emergency or under circumstances which demand 
its exercise. It is not necessary to rehearse in this connection all the 
circumstances suiTounding this eventful crisis in order to show that 
the governor of Louisiana, in view of history as well as immediate 
.surroundings, was justified in concluding that a riot was imminent, 
that blood Avould be shed, and that the peace of that State was about 
to be disturbed. 

A committee of the House of Representatives rejjorted in relation 
to the massacre that took place in 1866 at New Orleans, as follows : 
The committee examined seventy-four persons as to tlie facts of violence and 
bloodshed upon that day. It is in evidence that men who were in the hall, terrified 
by the merciless attacks of the police, sou;iht safety by jumping from the windows, 
a distance of twenty feet, to the ground, and as tlieyjumped were shot by police 
or citizens. Some, disfigured by wounds, fought their way down stairs to the 
street, to be shot or beaten to death on the pavement. Colored persons at distant 



10 

points in tlie city, pcacoably pursuing their lawful business, were attacked by the 
police, shot, and cnuUy beaten. Men of character and position, some of whom 
■were members and some sjiectators of the convention, escaped from the hall cov- 
ered with wounds and blood, and were preserved almost by a miracle fiom death. 
Scores of colored citizens bear fn.c;btf ul scars, more numerous than many soldiers 
of a dozen well-fought fields can show — proofs of fearful danger and .strange escape. 
Men were shot while waving handkerchiefs in token of surrender and submission. 
"White men and black, with arms uplifted, praying for life, were answered bj- shot 
and blow from knife and club. The bodies of some " were pounded to a jelly." A 
colored man was dragged from under a sticet-crossiug and killed at a blow. Men 
concealed in outhouses and anmiig iiilis of liinilier were eagerly sought for and 
slaughtered and maimed witliout remorse. The dead bodies upon the street were 
violated by shot, kick, and stab. Tlie face of a man "just breathing his last" was 
gashed by a knife or razor in the hands of a woman. An old gray-haired man, 
peaceably walking the street at a distance fi'om the institute, was shot through 
the head. Negroes were taken out of their houses and shot. A policeman riding 
in a buggy deliberately tired his revolver froiu the carriage into a crowd of colored 
men. A colored man two miles away from the convention hall was taken fiomhis 
shop by the police at about four o'clock in the afternocm of the riot, and shot and 
wounded in the side, hip, and back. One man was wounded by fourteen blows, 
shots, and stabs. The body of another received seven pistol-balls. After the 
slaughter had measurably ceased, caits, wagons, and drays, diiven through the 
streets, gathered the deaA, the dying, and the wounded in promiscuous loads, a 

Eolicemau in some cases riding in the wagon seated upon the living men beneath 
im. — Reports of Comtnittees, Mouse of Representatives, second session Thirty-ninth 
Congress, page 10. 

Sir, in view of such a history, in view of the fact that Governor Kel- 
logg knew the nature, the character, the revolutionary intent of the 
men who only a few days before had paraded the streets with arms in 
their hands and had made an attempt to overthrow the government — 
men who were the leaders and abettors in the riot of 1866 and of Sep- 
tember 14, 1874 — I undertake to say that the governor, knowing these 
facts, had there not been other and stronger evidence, would have had 
just cause to believe that danger, that riot, that bloodshed was im- 
minent. If there could be a case where the chief conservator of the 
peace would be authorized by law to summon the posse comitatus, it 
was this case. Not only this, sir ; the governor of Louisiana had" the 
history of that State for three or four years in his mind. He knew 
the character of the men who had been engaged in the terrible murder 
and slaugliter at Colfax ; he remembered the inhuman butchery of the 
men at Coushatta ; he remembered the terrible assassination of men in 
Saint Landry, and he remembered that in 1868, in the short sjnice of 
four or live months, according to the report of a committee of Congress 
who were sent there to investigate aft'airs in Louisiana, two thousand 
men had been murdered because of their jiolitical opinions. I read 
from the report of that committee : 

The testimony shows that over two thousand persons were killed, wounded, and 
otherwise injured in that State within a few weeks jiiior to the presidential elec- 
tion ; that half tile State was overrun liy violence ; midnight raids, secret murders, 
and open riot kept tlie people in constant terror until the republicans surrendered 
all claims, and the election was carried by tlic democracy. 

But, sir, the governor had more immediate proofs of the desperate 
intents of these men. During the sittings of the returning board 
they were constantly surrounded by armed and threatening bodies 
of men. Moreover, the press of the State teemed with tlireats, all 
looking to bloody work at the assembling of the Legislature on the 
4th of January. I quote from General Sheridan's report to the Secre- 
tary of War, as follows : 

During the few days in which I was in the city piior to the 4th of January, 
the general tonic of conversation was the scenes of bloodshed that were liable to 
occur on that day, and 1 repeatedly beard threats of a.ssassinating the governor and 
regrets exjiressed that ho was not killed on the 14tb of Sei)tembcr last ; al.so throats 
of assassination of the republieau members of the house in order to secure the 
election of a democratic sjieaker. 



11 

In view of all these facts, I again ask, was not Governor Kellogg 
jiistitied, was it not his solemn duty to take every precaution, to resort 
to every means within his reach to preserve the peace and prevent 
bloodshed? And yet democrats holdup their hands in holy horror 
that United States military forces were on the ground and their assist- 
ance called in to act with the civil posse. 

I now proceed to hrietly cite high legal authority that will not 
certainly be questioned by our democratic friends, to the effect that 
the power of the governor as a civil magistrate may be properly 
exercised in calling upon a military officer of the United States and 
the troops under his command as persons subject to be called upon 
to act as jjosse comiiatus ; and, if so. General De Trobriand, when so 
called, was bound to obey. Referring to the same authority, Bacon's 
Abridgment, we find that all tbe citizens of the country except the 
decrepit, persons of insane mind, minors, and females are bound to 
obey. No title, no dignity, no office, is exempt. Again we find the 
extent of this call reaching every citizen. From high American au- 
thority I cite the opinion of one of the most learned and distin- 
guished members of the legal profession in this country. I refer to 
Hon. Caleb Gushing, and the 'authority I cite is to be found on page 
473, volume 6, of the Opinions of the Attorneys-General of the United 
States. It is as follows : 

Tlie posse comitatris comprises every person in the distriet or connt_v above the ago 
of lifteen years, whatever may be their occuiiation, wlu'tlicreiviliann or not, and iu- 
chiding the military of all denominations — militia, soldiery, marines — all of whom 
are alike bound to obey the command of tlie shei ill' or marshal. The fact that they 
are organized as military bodies, under the immediate command of their own otli- 
cers, does not in anywise atl'ect their legal character. They are still tlie jjosse comi- 
iatus. 

This rule is also to be found in Lord Mansfield's Parliamentary His- 
tory, page <ci72. 

These authorities of the highest character must be utterly dis- 
regarded, or we are botmd to conclude that the governor of Louisiana 
had the right to call upon General De Trobriand <and the troojis under 
his command as a part of the jjosse co^nitaiits, and that they and each 
of them were bound to obey. 

If the President of the United States cannot be blamed ; if all 
these allegations that have been brought against him have fallen to 
the grotind, as they certainly have ; if neither General Sheridan, 
General Emory, nor General Do Trobriand have transcended the 
scope of their power nor violated the laws of the country, and the 
governor of Loitisiana on the 4tli day of January simply exercised 
a power incident to his office to summon a posse to preserve the peace 
and see that the laws of that State were executed — if, as we have 
seen, the power of the governor to summon the military to act as 
civil posse is established by the best legal authorities, what becomes 
of all this arraignment ? What becomes of this clamor that the Presi- 
dent of the United States <ind the governor of Louisiana have 
violated the Constitution of the United States in attempting to usurp 
powers that are not atithorized in the organic law of the land ? 

Mr. President, I believe that I have fully vindicated the action of 
the officers of the Army in the affairs of Louisiana, as justified by law. 
But as this question of the employment of the military in the affairs 
of a State, and particularly military interference with a legislative 
■ body, has been so bitterly denottnced, I desire to call the attention of 
our democratic friends to a few conspicuous democratic precedents 
that mark the history of this country. 



12 

I refer to the instance of General Jackson in New Orleans, where 
he seized a member of tlie Legishitnre, one Loviallier, and arrested 
the judge of the Federal court because he had granted his peti- 
tion for a writ of habeas corpus. I refer to the action of President 
Tyler in the case of the Dorr rebellion in Rhode Island, where, upon 
a simple letter from the governor of that State, a democratic Presi- 
dent instructed his Secretary of War to proceed to Rhode Island and 
investigate the att'air ; and if, upon his arrival, the governor of that 
State should make the prosier legal requisition for troops, gave him a 
proclamation already prepared. He was further instructed to inves- 
tigate the aft'airs of the State of Massachusetts and of Connecticut, 
and to ascertain whether they proposed to sustain Mr. Dorr in his 
effort to establish in Rhode Island a constitvition more in consonance 
with the spirit of our republican institutions. I will also cite another 
case of Federal interference, in the Territory of Kansas, where a demo- 
cratic governor issued a proclamation forbidding the organization of 
the free-state legislature, and the Secretary of War, under the in- 
structions of a democratic I'resideut, issued orders to the military 
commandant of theforcesin that Territory authorizing theactiBg gov- 
ernor to use the military forces to disperse the Legislature. 

Here is the order of Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, which 
the Clerk will please read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

"Washin'gtox, February 15, 1856. 

Sir : The President has by proclamation -^vained all persons combined for in- 
surrection 01' invasive aggression against the organized government of the TeiTi- 
tory of Kansas, or associate to resist the due execution of the laws therein, to ab- 
stain fiimi siuh ii'viilutionary and lawk^ss proceedings ; and has commanded them 
to disjieise and return peaceably to their respective abodes on painof being resisted 
by his whole constitutional power. If, therefore.'tho governor of the Territory, 
finding the ordinary course of judicial proceedings and the powers vested in 
United States marshals inadequate for the suppression of insurrectionary combi- 
nations or armed resistance to the execution of the law sln)uld make requisition 
upon j'ou to furnish a military force to aid him in the peitoriiiance of that othcial 
duty you are hereby directed to employ for that pTii'iiosc such part of your com- 
mand as may in your .judgment consistently be detached from their ordinary duty. 

In executing this delicate function of tlie military force of the United States, 
you will exercise much caution, to avoid, if juissible, collision with even insurgent 
citizens, and will endeavor to su])pressresistaiK-e of tlie laws ami constituted author- 
ities by that moral force which lia]i]iily, in our country, is ordinarily suttieient to 
secure re.s]ii'ct to the laws of tlie land and the regulaily-constituted autlioiity of 
the Government. You will use a sound discretion as to tlie moment at which tlie 
further employment of the militaiy force may bo discontinued, and avail yourself 
of the fir.st opportunity to return witli your command to the more grateful and 
prouder service of the soldier — that of the common defense. 

For yotir guidance in the premises you are referre<l to the acts of 28tli of Feb- 
ruary, 1795, and '.id of Mareli, Ir^oT, and to the proclamation of the President, a copy 
of whicli is herewith tiausiiiitteil. 

.Should you need furtlier or more specific instructions, or should in the progress 
of events doubts arisi! in your mind as to the course which it maybe proper feu'you 
to pursue, you will communicate directly with this Department, staling the points 
upon whioli you wish to be infornuHl. 

Very respectfully, jour obedient servant, 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Official copy : 

E. D. TOWN.SEND, 

A djutant- General. 

Mr. PEASE. The United States troops under Colonel Sumner wero 
used for that purpose ; a territoriiil Legislature was dispersed. That 
Legislature was menaced with tlie Army of the United States, with 
its artillery b<>aring njion the hall where they were assembled. This 
■wasd(in(> in tlie interest and in the furtherance of slavery, and there 
never has been, to my knowledge, an instance where a democrat has 



13 

ever ceusured the action of the President on that occasion. I quote 
fiu'ther from the history of that proceeding : 

Colonel Sumner, acting under orders from "Washington, entered tlie house of rep- 
resentatives. The roll was called by tlie clerk, and this officer remarked that he 
was about to perform the most disiigiccable duty of his life, and that was the dis- 
persion of the Legislature. He .said liis orders were to disperse it ; and, in answer 
to Judge Schuyler, he said he should tiiiplDV all the force neces.sary to carry his 
orders into effect. ITo then entered tlie senate chamber, and in like manner dis- 
persed that body. — Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Poiver in America, page 500. 

Federal troops were also repeatedly used to arrest fugitive slaves. 
In the city of Boston, in 1854, the United States marines were called 
upon to prevent the rescue of a fugitive slave. It was in reference 
to an event of this kind that Hon. Caleb Gushing decided that United 
States soldiers and marines could be used as the civil posse. 

In September, 1861, the Legislature of Maryland, a sovereign State 
occupying a normal relation to the Federal Government, was about 
to assemble at Annapolis, the capital of the State, and the following 
order was issued by General George B. McClellau which speaks for 
itself : 

Headquarters Army of the Potomac, 

Washington, September 12, 1861'. 

General : After full consultation with the President, Secretaries of State, War' 
&c., it has been decided to efl'ect the operation in'ojiosed for the 17th. Arrange- 
ments have been made to have a Government steamer at Annapolis to receive the 
prisoners and carry them to their destination. 

Some four or five of the chief men in the atfair are to be arrested to-day. "When 
they meet on the 17th, ymi will please have everything prepared to arrest the 
whole party, and be sure that umw escape. 

It is understood that you arranged with General Dix and Governor Seward the 
modus operandi. It ha.s been intimated to me that th<^ nu^eting might take place 
on the 14th ; please be prepared. I would be ghid to liave you advi.se me frequently 
of your arrangements in regard to this very important matter. 

if it is successfully carried out, it will go far toward breaking the backbone of 
the rebellion. It would probably be well to have a special train quietly lu-epared 
to take prisoners to Annapolis. 

Thus was the Legislature of Maryland interfered with by the mili- 
tary. Democrats complained of the action of the Government as 
illegal just as they are doing uow. But it went far to " break the 
backbone of the rebellion " nevertheless, and in 1864 these same 
democrats ran McClellan for President. So much for democratic 
precedent and democratic consistency. 

In v|ewof the apprehensions entertained by our democratic friends 
of the overthrow of constitutional liberty in this country, by Federal 
usurpation and aggression upon the rights of the States, it is a singular 
fact that they see no danger in organized eftbrts to strike down the 
fundamental franchise-of an American citizen, the right to express 
at the ballot-box his views upon all questions of public policy ; they 
see no danger to republican institutions from lawless minorities w^ho 
by means of fraud, violence, and intimidation suppress the voice of 
the majority-.-see no danger in the anarchical tendencies, the revo- 
lutionary spirit which pervades many of the Southern States. Sir, 
Xiermit me to say that if ever this Republic is destroyed, the historian 
will record that the seeds of dissolution were sown in the gradual 
encroachments upon the rights of the citizen at the ballot-box. 

Sir, in all their terrible arraignment we find no count in the in- 
dictment against revolt, murder, and assassination; not a word of 
censure has fallen from the lips of any democrat in this debate against 
the gang of murderers who inhumanly butchered the parish officers 
at Coushatta, or the fiends wiio slaughtered men by the score at 
Colfax : not a word of condemnation luive we heard of the White 



14 

League revolt in New Orleans on tbe 14tli of September, in which 
citizens and public officers were murdered, the archives of the State 
seized and plundered ; no censure upon the revolutionary action of the 
usurper, Wiltz, in his attempt to use the military of the United States 
in the furtherance of his revolutionary designs ; but on the contrary, 
(and regret that I am compelled to say,) that partisan feeling haa 
led Senators on the other side to offer extenuations and apologies 
for treason, revolt, domestic violence, murder, and the most diabolical 
outrages known in the annals of crime. 

Sir, I was astonished that an American statesman, a Senator, coiild 
stand in his place in the American Senate, and in the face of the offi- 
cial information by the President of the United States now before us, 
extenuate or apologize for the lawlessness that obtains in the State of 
Louisiana. 

I listened Avith close attention and with mingled pleasure and dis- 
appointment to the splendid display of forensic oratorv afforded the 
Senate by the distinguished Senator from Missouri [Mr. SciiURZ] in his 
speech in support of the pending resolution. I am not insensible to the 
lofty character and patriotic tone of his brilliant utterances. I con- 
gratulate myself and the Senate that while the honorable Senator 
referred to the adventurers at the South by way of extenuation for 
treason and revolution and crime, he had too much self-respect to 
indulge in the usual diatribe against carpet-baggers or give utterance 
to the wholesale slander and sweeping denunciation against those 
who after the war sought homes in the South and saw proper to en- 
gage in the political work of reconstruction. 

Perhaps the honorable Senator does not indorse the oligarchical 
theory that only those are entitled to a voice in public altairs who 
are "to the manner born," or who subscribe to the dogmas of the 
secession democracy. But for a more enlightened civilization, a more 
comprehensive statesmanship, the people of Missouri and the Ameri- 
can Congress would have been deprived of the service of a brilliant 
statesman. True American civilization, and the narrow, bigoted, sec- 
tional pride which refuses to recognize any merit outside of the 
landed aristocracy of the South are widely different, and I am happy 
to know thiit the honorable Senator has heretofore subscribed to the 
former kind of civilization, and per co))scqt(eiitia his place in this 
body will soon be lilled bj' a representative of quite another type 
of political philosophy. ^ 

Secession democracy, however much it may profess to have been 
modified, liberalized, or if you please Greeleyized, has no high appre- 
ciation of services, however brilliant and patriotic they may be, if as in 
the Senator's case the public servant should at s«)me period of his politi- 
cal life have deserved well of his country for another and a more 
commendable service than an apologist for treason and revolution. 
The eminent Senator has a record which Bourbon democracy can 
never fully indorse or forget. 

I remember when I first engaged in politics, among the first politi- 
cal documents that I ever read, and I road them with great pleasure, 
were the speeches that fell from the lips of the distinguished Senator 
in defense of universal liberty, and against an oligarchy of a million 
of men controlling thirty millions. Sir, the history of the honorable 
Senator is such upon the great questions that have agitated the Amer- 
ican people for the last decade, that secession democracy at the South 
or their allies at the North will never, never forget the Senator. 

Mr. President, I desire to present some of the views of the Senator 
on these very (inestions as expressed in a report that was submitted 



15 

by him a few years ago relating to the condition of the South, a most 
masterly report describing every form, feature, and phase of the con- 
dition of the South then existing and prospective. In reading this 
report I was struck with the prophetic utterances of the distinguished 
Senator. I will read one that struck me with great force, in rela- 
tion to these adventurers or carpet-baggers that have brought upon 
the South, as the Senator would have us believe, much of the present 
difficulty. Here are some of his views in relation to " adventurers " 
in the South in 1865 : 

A temporary coutiniiation of national control in the Southern States would also 
haveamostbeueticial etfectas regards the immigration of northern people and Euro- 
peans into that country; and such inmiigration would, in its turn, contribute much 
to the solution of the labor problem. Nothing is more desirable for the South than 
the importation of new men and new ideas. One of the greatest drawbacks under 
which the southern pisople are laboring is that for fifty years they have been in no 
sympathetic communion with the progressive ideas of "the times. While profess- 
ing to be in favor of free trade, they adopted and enforced a system of prohibition, 
as far as those ideas wei-e concerned, which was in couflict with their cherished 
institution of slavery ; and, as almost all the progressive ideas of our days were in 
conflict with slavery, the prohibition was sweeping. It had one peculiar effect, 
which wo also notice with some Asiatic nations which follow a similar course. The 
southern peo])le honestly maint.ained and believed not only that as a people they 
were highly civilized, but that their civilization was thehighest that could be 
atiaiuid, :ui<l ought to serve as a model to other nations the world over. The more 
euliglitcntil individuals among them felt sometimes a vague impression of the bar- 
renness of their mental life and the barl>ai'ous peculiarities of their social organiza- 
tion ; but very few ever dared to inve.stig;it<' and to expose the true cause of these 
evils. Thus the people were so wrapped up in self-admiration as to be inaccessible 
to the voice even of the btst-intentioned criticism. Hence the delusion they in- 
dulged in as to the absolute sujic liority of their race — a delusion which, in spite of 
the severe test it has lately undci-iione, is not yet given up, and will, as every trav- 
eler in the South can testify from experience, sometimes express itself in singular 
manifestations. 

Yes, sir, "singular manifestations." It has been expressing itself, 
I say to the Senator, for the last four or live years in most singular 
manifestations. It has expressed itself in the mo.st cowardly, in the 
most dastardlj' nuirders and assassinations that have ever charac- 
terized any nation in the history of the world. Men claiming to 
belong to the cliivalry of the South have armed themselves and 
covered their cowardly carcasses with disguises, and under the cover 
of night, in bodies of from twenty to one hundred, have visited the 
lone cabin of a negro and taken him out and beaten him until he died 
because he had the mauhood to accept what the Senator himself advo- 
cated and the American Congress had given him — the right to vote. 
Another singular manifestation, because a man happened to be born 
north of the Ohio River and brought np and educated to indorse the 
ideas of American civilization, believe in free locomotion, believe that 
a man was a man if he had the elements of manhood about him, virtue, 
intelligence, and honesty — I say because men entertain these views 
they are tabooed, proscribed, and ostracized. 

There are some very choice sentiments in this report. I read a sen- 
timent to be found on page 5 of the document : 

The incorrigibles, who will indulge in the swagger which was so customary be- 
fore and during the war, and still hope for a time when the soutliern confederacy 
will achieve its independence. This class consists mo.stly of young men, and com- 
piises the loiterers of the towns and the idlers of the country. They persecute 
Union men and negroes whenever they can do so with impunity, insist clamorously 
upon their "rights,"aud are extremely impatient of thepreseuceof theFederal sol- 
diers. 

I desire to say to the Senator that the condition of things which 
he found in 18t)5 obtains in 1875. I regret it ; nothing is more pain- 
ful to me, representing as I do in part here to-day a constituency 



16 

made up largely of this class of men ; but the truth compels me to 
confess that this condition of things obtains to a greater or less ex- 
tent throughout the entire South. Men talk about their rights. You 
cannot lind one among the unrepentant secession democrats, who only 
a few years ago marshaled themselves together to overthrow the Con- 
stitution and to destroy this Government and trample her flag under 
foot, who is not to-day holding up his hands in horror because the 
governor of Louisiana summons a portion of the Army to aid as a 
posse in preserving the peace and preventing a riotous mob of con- 
spirators from usiu-ping the powers and prerogatives of a Legislature. 

These patriotic admirers of the Constitution and laws of the coun- 
try now appeal to Congress and the American people for sympathy ! 
And as these invocations go up from the secession democracy of the 
South they are met with a hearty response from every "copperhead"' 
democrat at the North, until the country resounds with manufactured 
clamor. When this clamor was raised a few days ago every secession 
democrat and every copperhead who have through the virtue and 
patriotism of the American people during and since the war been 
obliged to hide their faces in shame, when this grand coiq) cVetat was 
l)romulgated, appeared at the front and are attempting to alarm the 
American people with a hjqjocriticalcry about the overthrow of repub- 
lican institutions in this country, because, forsooth. General Sheridan 
has assumed command of the troops in the city of New Orleans and 
in the brusqueness of a soldier telegraphed to the President that if 
he or Congress would give him the authority he would put a stop lo 
murder and assassination in the South. 

But I have a little more of this literature furnished us by the dis- 
tinguished Senator. On page 7 we find the Senator saying : 

I have read iu southern papers hitter complaints ahont the unfriendly spirit 
exhibited by the nortliern people, complaints not unfrequeutly flavored with an 
admixture oiE vicforous vituperation. 

That is very elegantly put. 

From personal experience I can verify the truth of this admixture 
of "vigoroits vituperation." Every man who has the manhood to 
declare his political sentiments, if perchance they happen to difter 
from the old slave-holding oligarchy of the South, is denominated a 
carpet-bagger ; "if he happens to have been born north of Mason and 
Dixon's line, he is denominated by the i)ress of the country and the 
jieople of the country as an intruder, and charged as having left his 
country for his country's good." 

They are called " penitentiary convicts," "thieves," "incendiaries." 
That is the kind of vigorous vituperation which a northern man 
meets if he happens to be a republican. And a southern man who, 
when these "tire-eating" democrats in their madness undertook to 
overthj-ow the Government and destroy the South, had the courage 
to stand up and say he was opposed to their rash and suicidal policy, 
and had the patriotism to stand by the old tlag, is persecuted and 
denounced ; such men are murdered by cowardly midnight assassins, 
by the very class of men of whom the Senator speaks as indulging 
in this kind of " vigorous vituperation." But he says : 

Ah far as my experience goes, the "unfriendly spirit " exhibited in the North is 
all mildness aiul alffction compared with tlic jilipuhir temper which in the South 
vents itself in a variety of ways and on all possilde oceasicms. No observing 
nortliern man can come into contact willi the dillcrent classes composing southern 
society without noticing it. 

But the S(!nator will say, "That was the condition of things imme- 
diately after tlie war. It is diflcrent now." I undertake to say that 



17 

wliile these seutiinents obtained in 18G5, tliey have been growing 
worse and worse from that day to this. I will read another extract 
or two, and then pass from this valuable historical document. He says : 
There are two piiiuipal points to wliieh I beg to call your attention. In the first 
place, tlierai>i(l ictuiii to iiowcr and iiiMiunce of so many of those who butreceutly 
were engaged in a bitter war against the I'nion has had one etiect which was cer- 
tainly not originally contemplated by tlio Government. Treason does, under exist- 
ing circumstances, uot appear odious in the South. 

I desire to say to the Senate that the same sentiment obtains to- 
day. It is not odious with a certain class of people to declare and to 
maintain that the amendments to the Coustittition of the United 
States — I refer to the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth articles of 
amendment — are no part of the Constitution ; that they are frauds, 
conceived in iniquity and carried forward in fraud; that, while they 
are obliged to accept them, whenever the time shall come that they 
get the power they propose to make these amendments practically a 
dead letter ; in other words, they propose, if necessary, to revolu- 
tionize the country and set at naught the coustitutional amendments. 
"Treason is not odious." In this connection permit me to submit 
the following, which I quote from the statements and speeches of 
the leading southern statesmen who subscribe to the doctrines of the 
democratic party : 

Three years ago Hon. Alexander H. Stephens said he believed 
" all of the reconstruction legislation of Congress to be unconstitu- 
tional, fraudulent, and void." The thirteenth amendment he admitted 
to be valid, because it had been ratified by the rightful governments 
of the Soxithern States — the governments dejure, and not the govern- 
ments de facto afterward established by bayonets. The fourteenth 
and fifteenth amendments he claimed were no part of the Constitu- 
tion, because their pretended ratification had been eft'ected by force 
and fraud. 

In assuming iiolitical control of the Atlanta Sun, democratic, ho 



A chief object will be to show, by calm and argumentative appeals to the good 
sense and patriotism of the true friends of the Constitution. North as well as South, 
that any departure from the essential princijiles of that platform will bo exceed- 
ingly dangerous, if uot fatal, to the liberties of the whole country. 

The platform referred to above is that adopted by the democratic 
national convention of 18G8. 

Kobert Toombs, formerly United States Senator, afterward a cabi- 
net officer in the confederate congress, when asked if he wouhl sup- 
port the new departure of the northern democracy as expounded by 
Vallandigham, replied : 

Kever. I would sooner vote for Horace Greeley than for any democrat upon 
such a platform. 

And declared finally — 

That the people of the South could never be brought to accept the constitutional 
amendments as finalities, and if the democratic party took that ground they would 
hiive nothing to do with that party. We n\ ill fight you again Just as soon as_ wo 
can get readv, and I believe wo can get ready nnich sooner than most people think. 
I think the South will attempt another war.'and I believe I shall live to see south- 
ern independence. 

Our ijeople are losing the hope that they will see Shiloh in their day, but they are 
training their children to take up the work. 

On the 25th of May, at Augusta, Georgia, Jefi'erson Davis, who owes 
his life to the clemency of the Government, thus characterized the 
people of the North : 

Filled with that jealousy which springs from the knowledge of their inferiority 
and of the justice of your i)roteu.sious, aud conscious of broken covenauts aud a vio, 

2q 



18 

latcil Constitution, they mistrust every movement anil tremble with fear when 
they think that right may again prevail. But wrong cannot always be triumphant. 
I will say nothing^ and yoir must tlo nothing, even though tyranny oppresses griev- 
ously upon you. Forbear for a season, and a day will come when all will yet be 
well. I may not nor may some of you live to see it, but it is surely coming. He 
who reigns above and lives always will see that justice is done. He will not allow 
the wicked to always remain in i)ower, nor the righteous to be oppressed. We can 
wait until that day comes, and in the mean time be quiet. 'Tis an old and wise say- 
lug, that "a good biting dog never barks much." 

In a speech at Atlanta lie said : 

I am not of those "who accept the situation." I accept nothing. These cant 
phrases that we hear so much of about "accepting the situation," and about our 
rights having been submitted to the " aibitrament of the sword," are but the excuses 
odf cowards. I admit that power prevails over truth. I admit that power is so great 
that it would be folly to resist it; and therefore I am in favor' myself of being 
acquiescent, and I advise you to the same course ; but I do not admit that our 
rights have ever been submitted to the arbitrament of the sword. Who has the 
power to submit your liberties to the arbitrament of battle ? You never delegated 
that power to your representatives. I, as your executive, never claimed it, and 
never, dying or living, will I admit it. And then, my friends, about the much- 
talked-of subject of "accepting the situation." Ton are not called upon to 
acknowledge that you have done wrong unless you feel it. I don't believe I did 
any wrong, and therefore I don't ackuoVvledge it. 

General Leslie, a leading democrat of Kentncky, like Jeff Davis, 
"accei^ts nothing." In a stnmp speech he said : 

As to the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, I nni nut and out 
opiiosed to them. I care not who in Indiana, Ohio, or ilsewliero may be for them. 
Those amendments were iugrafted upon tlui Coustitiitioii of the country and pro- 
claimed to the country as part and parcel of theCouslitution by force and by fraud, 
and not in tlie legitin'iate wa.y laid down in the ('(institution. Ten States of this 
Union were tied hands and feet, and bayonets wcie iiicscnted to their breasts to 
make them consent against their will to the passnge of these amendments. The 
procuring of these amendments was a fraud upon this people ami uiion the people 
of the whole United States ; and having thus been obtaineil, 1 hold they ought to 
be repealed. There may be some democrats who are not for their repeal, but the 
great body of our partj' is for it. 

A prominent Georgia democrat introduced Mr. Davis at Augusta, 
and in doing so said: 

History will vindicate you. I know that you are not rash. Ton did what you 
could to save the Eepublic, to promote peace, to adjust the quarrel. I do not now 
propose to review the dread drama th.-it closed in the overthrow of the southern 
cause. That is not a lost cause. It is the cause of constitutional liberty, and will 
yet triumph. 

The Vicksburgh (Mississippi) Herald says: 

The southern people have endured long enough. The democrats North have no 
special claim upon us. Now that the shoe pinches at home many of them want 
the South to come forward and aiil in arresting tlie military despotism of Grant, 
whicli lias for its object tlie ])crpetuation of the republican party. Mr. Davis is a 
representative man of the South ; by him we are ready to be judged in the future. 

The Memphis Appeal is especially outspoken. It says : 
When we assert that the constitutional amendments, except the thirteenth, are 
odious and will be rescinded whenevci' a convention of the States or absolute demo- 
cratic power in the Government may render the consuiniition possible, we tell the 
.simple, unvarnished truth. * * * We are for the lawful repeal of unlawful 
mockeries of constitutional law. 
In corroboration I read further from the honorable Senator's report : 

The people are not impressed with any sense of its criminality. And, secondly, 
there is as yet among the southern people an utter absence of 7iational feeling. I 
made it a bii.siness, while in the South, to watch the .symptoms of returning loyalty 
as they ap|i<:ire(l not only in private conversation, but in the public press and in 
the s]i'eeclies dili vercd arid the resolutions passed at Union meetings. Hardly ever 
was thei-e anexiiression of hearty attachment- to the gri'at Uei)uldic, or an ii])i)ealto 
the impulses of patriotism; liut'wlirnever suhinissioii to the national authority was 
declared and advocated, it was almost uniformly placed upon two principal grounds : 



19 

That, under present circnrastances, the southern people could " do no better ; " and 
then that submission was the only means by which they could rid themselves of the 
Tederal soldiers and obtain once more control of their own affairs. 

I desire to say to the Senator that the same sentiment obtains to- 
day, and that this whole effort now being made at the South is to 
carry out that very programme. We have read in the press of the 
country of the patriotic and Christian advice sent to some of the 
rash revohitionists at the South. I rccoHect reading a few days 
since some advice given to the rioters in New Orleans from one of our 
distinguished Senators. He said, " Bear it all ; suffer on ; do not at- 
tempt to resent your injuries. Your very sufferings, your martyrdom, 
is coming up before the American people ; it is reaching their sympa- 
thetic hearts, and in a short time, if you will only keep quiet, you 
will be restored again to power, and then all Avill be well." That 
was the substance of the advice. It is simply a policy of "stooping 
to conquer." But the object and aim of these revolutionists is to get 
power and the control of those State governments. The American 
people may attempt to avoid the issue, but it is inevitable. Recent 
movements at the South mean revolution ; mean destruction to 
this Republic by breaking down the foundations upon which it rests — 
the right of the majority to rule. I will pause to read an extract 
from a letter recently written by Bishop Haven, of Georgia : 

Papers of the ability of the Times and Tribune, gentlemen of the culture and 
breadth of Abel Stevens and .James Freeman Clarke, arc only specimens of the 
general surrender in whole or in part of the northern mind to the Geor{,fia domina- 
tion. 

This surrender bids fair to bring forth fatal fruit. It may lead to a recapture by 
the captured of the whole result of the war. It is the set purpose of the whole 
South to recover what it has lost— the government of the nation ; and to recover 
this without any more surrender of their old claims than is possible. 

Alexander Stephens declared just at the close of the war that what they had 
lost on the held they would recover in Cnn-ircss, even as Cromwell's rebellion suc- 
ceeded in the revolution of '88. The present governor of Georgia, declares that 
under their present constitution feudalism, or the control of labor and the laborer, 
can be completely secured. . . , , . 

The wortfs these leaders utter the white South feel. They are unanimous in this 
desire and purpose. Of course I exclude from this unanimity the men who stood 
by the Union and still stand by the ideas that Union involves. 

They propose, by a system of intimidation in some instances and 
by a system of quiet acquiescence in other places, to get into power. 
All these agencies they propose to use to get control of the Govern- 
ment ; and when the time comes, and it is not far distant unless the 
American people arouse themselves to the danger that menaces the 
country, when in a short time fifteen of these States will be in the 
hands of men who are inimical to this Government, who have no more 
sympathy with free government than they had ten or twelve years 
ago — men who have been inaugurating and pushing forward in their 
political policy at the South the doctrine that the amendments to 
the Constitution that gave freedom to the negro, that gave him the 
right to vote and that protect him in all his rights, imnumities, 
and privileges as a citizen, they will abrogate these amendments to 
the ConstitiUion ; they will place the negro in his " normal place," make 
him a "hewer of wood and drawer of water" for a "superior race." 
That is their purpose, and when they control fifteen States of this 
Union with one or two Northern States they will have, as they had 
before the war for fifty years, the control of this Government. They 
made then the American Government kneel down to the Moloch of 
slavery, and tliey will make it, if they get control again, bow down 



20 

to the secession democracy of the South. There is another sentence^ 
iu the Souator's report that I will read, which is proplietic: 

As to the future peace and liarmmiyof tli(> UiiioTi, it is of the liiLrliest importance 
that the people lately in rebellion br nut ]nTiiutti-il to Imild uii another "peculiar 
institution" whoso spirit is in contiict with tlie tinidaniental principles of our po- 
litical system ; for as Ions -is they cherish interests ijeculiar to them in preference 
to those tliey have in common with the rest of the American people, their loyalty 
to the Union will always be uncertain. 

The distinguished Senator never uttered in his life a truer senti- 
ment or made a truer statement than that. That is the true solution 
of the question to-day. It is tlie want in tlie Soutli of loyalty to 
the Government, and sj'mpathy with free government. The people 
of that country do not "accept the situation;" they do not regard 
the revolution as having settled the old political heresy of "State 
sovereignty." They expect and are entertaining the hope that 
sooner or later they will reinstate that doctrine, and control at least 
fifteen of these States under the idea of the independent sovereignty 
of a State. But, sir, from the speech of the distinguished Senator, 
we are bound to conclude that ho has changed his views, that he has 
faced about and counsels us to do liliewise. 

Under his political teachings the State of Missouri has been turned 
over to the secession democracy and he would now have the republi- 
can party deliver Louisiana bound hand and foot over to the White 
League banditti. There were many sentiments expressed in the 
Senator's speech which I fully indorsed. I admired its lofty, patriotic 
tone. It was as a whole an excellent homily on the well-established 
principles of republican government. But when the learned Senator 
had linished his eloquent thesis on constitntioual liberty, I felt con- 
strained to suggest to him that a government of the people for the 
peoi)le and by the people is no utopianism. 

Mr. President, just as the American people were congratulating 
themselves upon the practical application of this theory of govern- 
ment to all the States, when wo were flattering ourselves that prac- 
tically the doctrine of State sovereignty which had l)een fostered by 
an oligarchy of slave-owners in fifteen States of this Union was obso- 
lete, blotted out by the sword, the work of reconstruction and the 
restoration of the insurrectionary States upon the basis of universal 
sitfi^rageand the majority rule had been completed, we find ourselves 
confronted with a gigantic conspiracy to overthrow these govern- 
ments and re-establish the oligarchical or minority rule. I refer to 
1870 ami 1871, when we were confronted by the conspiracy known as 
the Ku-Klux organization. The history of that organization has be- 
come familiar to every American. No man who is acquainted with 
the history of his country will deny with tlie facts we have before us 
that at least half a million, (for this is the statement of the chief 
Cyclops of the organization — I refer to General Forrest of Fort Pillow 
notoriety) — men were organized in those bands with the object of get- 
ting control of the State governments by intimidation, by mitrder, 
and by all kinds of crime. 

Why, sir, in the history of this world tliere never was such a drama 
presented as the career of that Ku-Klux organization in the South for 
a period of three years and mitil Congress acted, imtil the republican 
party became aroused to the magnitude of the conspiracy. Congress 
halted just as they liave in the last two years on this question of the 
South, until it became so notorious, until the blood of thousands of 
men bad ascended to tlH< " Lord of Sabbaotli," until the American 
people began to feel that iu the name of Cluiatianity and of hitmantty 



21 

tbe people of the South, the poor negro, and the northern soldier and 
the southern Union man must have some protection for life, liberty, 
and property, you concluded finally to give ns a law that would hunt 
out these assassins and punish them in the United States courts, and 
you allowed the Government to use the military to arrest them. No 
sooner was it done than this revolution, this conspiracy was broken 
up. When once it is disbanded, lo ! we are confronted with another 
organization of the same intent, with the same purpose. It is the 
same old organization revamped, but with more power, and more 
\'iolent and determined in its purposes, because of the sympathy 
it receives from the northern democracy, by having on this floor 
apologists for their assassinations and murders. Men who complain 
of high taxes and of being plundered of their property because of 
the infamous radical negro rule can find money enough to buy 
muskets to arm these White Leagues ; they can contribute of their 
pittance hundreds and thousands of dollars to organize and arm these 
bodies of men whose object is to overthrow those governments and 
ultimately to destrov this Republic. 

Mr. TH'URMAN. Will the Senator allow me to interrupt him ? 

Mr. PEASE. Yes, sir. 

Mr. THURMAN. The Senator has said that assassination and mur- 
der have apologists on this floor. I demand of the Senator to name 
an apologist for assassination and murder. 

Mr. PEASE. I perhaps ought to qualify that remark. I have not 
heard a Senator stand in his place and advocate murder and assassi- 
nation, but I have heard, and the country is aware of the fact, that 
the speeches w^hich have been delivered from that side of the House 
have been treating lightly the subject of murder and assassination. 
When we cite you cases numbering hundreds of ]ieaceable, quiet, 
iuofl;ensive citizens who have been stricken down at midnight, Avho 
have been murdered in the day-time by your political organizations, 
you say it is a "radical outrage-mill" gotten up for political pur- 
poses, 'when we point you to Trenton, when we point you to Cou- 
shatta, when we point you to New Orleans, "0!"you say, "this 
outrage business is played out." If that is not a kind of apology for 
crime, for assassination, I know not what it is. When the facts 
■were presented by the distuiguished Senator from Indiana, [Mr. 
Morton,] particularly when lu: said that mur(l<?r abounded through- 
out that country, that assassinations are common, ho is met on 
the other side with the statement that these things are untrue. 
When wo declare that the reports which have gone forth from the 
Southern Associated Press have done more by misrepresentation 
to poison the American mind, done more to bring about this condition 
of revolution than any other agency — when wo make the statement 
that this Associated ' Press is in the hands of white-leaguers, or 
members of the Ku-Klux Klan, that correspondents and operators of 
the Western Union line belonging to that organization, send their 
statements all over the country, which form the basis of editorials in 
our metropolitan press, saying to the country that the statements 
made by the negroes and the Union men in the South are all false, 
that the negroes are the aggressors, that the negroes are arming, that 
the negroes are marching on their cities with their "sacks and their 
wagons" to plunder, that the negroes are attempting to murder and 
intimidate the white people— when, I say, these statements of out- 
rages are presented, they are denounced as false. Senators on the 
other side of the Chamber treat the matter lightly and deny that 
any such falsehoods have been propagated and sent over this coun- 
try. What is that but apology for assassination and murder ? 



22 

Mr. THURMAN. Will the Senator allow me to interrupt him again ? 

Mr. PEASE. Yes, sir. 

Mr. THIIRMAN. I utterly deny that there has been by any mem- 
ber on this floor one -word of apology for assassination, and there is no 
foundation for making such a charge, and no man has a right to make 
it. We have denounced exaggerations and falsehoods, and we will 
continue to do so ; but when it comes to be a question of veracity 
between the Senator from Mississippi and the gentlemen of the As- 
sociated Press, he will allow tis to reserve our judgment. 

Mr. PEASE. I desire to say, Mr. President, and I make this state- 
ment without fear of successful controversy, and every Senator who 
has listened to the speeches delivered on that side of the House will 
bear me out in the statement, that in all this arraignment, in all the 
discussion we have had for the last two weeks over this question, not 
one single utterance have we heard from that side of the Chamber 
condemning these murders ; but when we have stated the facts, mat- 
ters on record in our courts, matters which are sworn to by men 
whose veracity cannot be questioned, our statements are treated with 
contempt as belonging to the "outrage-mill!" A few murders, "un- 
justifialde homicides," are committed, it is said, " and they are every- 
where." That is the way the subject has been treated ; that is the 
way the statements have been met. The Senator " reserves his judg- 
ment !" Thank the Lord for that ! 

Sir, I say that there is an organization existing at the South, and 
it has its apologists and sympathizers at the North, the object of 
which is to revolutionize this Government, to get control of the 
Southern States, and thereby reinstate the old secession and slave 
democracy. It has, I say, its sympathizers at the North, and the 
sympathy it is receiving there only infuses it with more life and 
vigor. The recent elections at the North have been construed by 
these old, wily Bourbons of the South, men who never learn anything 
or forget anything, waking up in their fossiliferous condition, in their 
dreamy hallucination, and they imagine that the recent elections 
in the North and the political changes in several States have 
been really an indorsement of secession, an indorsement of rebellion. 
I venture the assertion that unless this revolutionary spirit is 
checked in the South, unless this conspiracy is put down now, you 
will have another revolution in this country more terrible, more 
disastrous, than the war of the rebellion. It will not be one section 
warring against anotlier. They will have no separate flag, no "stars 
and bars" the next time. They will tight under the old Hag. They 
will seek to destroy this Government by anarchy; and to-day the 
seeds of anarchy have already germinated and are ready almost to 
blossom in fifteen of these States. In the South to-day, and it is no 
exaggeration to say it, we Jiro on the verge of the same anarchical 
condition that prevails in South America and Mexico. 

I venture io make another prediction : that in case the democracy 
shall succeed and these States shall go into the hands of the demo- 
cratic l)arty, they luif^- have for awhile ])eace, but it will be of short 
duration. Let me say to my southern democratic friends that you 
are by tliis course phicing a chalice to your lips that will poison you. 
It will destroy your country because of the dcmornlization that 
ol)taiiis tlicr(^ lo-(hiy from the acts of the armed bodies, " banditti," 
as the noble hero, Sheiidan, denominates them — (and he nev(>i- uttered 
a truersentimcjit.) I say when th(\y have finished their ])olifical work, 
they will turn to cutting the throat of the citizen, murdering him 
or liis uio'.icv. Tliat is tlie tendcncv of this tiling: and if these 



23 

pi'ecedents are allowed to go on nnuoticetl; if a band of insurrection- 
ists, a band of rioters, can overturn a government in a day ; if a mi- 
nority can rule the majority, and it is winked at by the American 
Congress, how long will it be before yon will have the same sort of 
thing iu your own democratic ranks ? Some ambitious candidate 
will say, "I received a majority of the votes ; there has been some 
fraud iu the returning board," and he will arm his clan and overturn 
your government, and you will lind yourselves iu the condition of 
Mexico and the South American states. It devolves upon the Ameri- 
can statesman, it devolves upon every patriot, to look this question 
square iu the face ; and it is the duty of the American Senator, the 
American Eei)resentative iu this Congress, to meet it. If further leg- 
islation is needed, let us have it ; but I can say to you, sir, from my 
knowledge of the situation, all that it is necessary to do is to let 
the American people know and feel that there is patriotism, that 
there is virtue enough left in the republican party, the party which 
preserved this country through four years of internecine war, carried 
it through that terrible struggle, to defend it and to secure the glo- 
rious achievements of universal freedom in this country. That is all 
we want. Let that be announced, and white-leaguers will hunt their 
holes and their syuipathyzing copperhead democrats at the North 
will retire, and we shall have peace and quiet and order iu the South. 

This body of meu have adopted the policy by whicli Avhen they are 
unable to vote down they propose to strike down with the hand of 
the assassin. These assassins, these bands of conspirators, these 
revolutionists have the audacity to come up before the country 
and ask the American people, ask the American Senate, to surrender 
to them. Why, says the distinguished Senator from Virginia, [Mr. 
Johnston,] " Let us alone ;" " let us have our way ; " let us revolu- 
tionize Arkansas, let us overturn Louisiana ; let us, as a minority, 
overrule and destroy the rights and privileges of the majority. Let 
us aloue. Ask us to surrender ! Are we prepared to follow the hon- 
orable Senator from Virginia and accede to his demands ? Surrender 
what? The State of Louisiana to the democratic party. That of 
itself would be a small matter, iu fact, a heavy burden woiild be 
taken from us, for a burden it has been indeed. Warmoth had bank- 
rupted the State, and then, under the leadership of the distinguished 
Senator from Missouri, saddled the republican party with all the dis- 
aster and reproach of his maladministration, while he sought refuge 
and was received iu the very bosom of the democracy. 

Sir, before we make terms of capitulation to the enemy let us fully 
understand what it involves. In the lirst place, it will involve the 
cowardly surrender of a fundamental principle of our rexsresentative 
form of government, namely, the right of the majority to rule. Sec- 
ond, it would involve the sacritice of all the glorious achievements of 
the war, universal liberty, and equal protection for all iu their per- 
sonal and political rights. I apprehend that the American Senate is 
not ready to accept such ignominious terms, or so utterly lost to every 
sense of justice and patriotism as to turn over a State government 
into the hands of the worst set of political banditti known in the 
annals of any government. In the langiiage of the honorable Sena- 
tor from Missouri, we might well say, "that it would furnish unmis- 
takable indication of the decline of free institutions in America." 
When the American people are so lost to patriotism, so lost to that 
fidelity which every American should exercise toward his coimtry 
that we will surrender the achievements of the great war of the rebell- 
ion, costing its millions of treasure and its rivers of blood — when wo 



24 

are ready to surrentler that, I say, we may well exclaim iu tlie language 
of the distinguished Senator that "free institutions are on the decline 
and will soon fall to rise no more." 

I will go as far as the Senator in the maintenance of constitutional 
liberty, both iu form and iu essence ; but I do not appreciate that 
kind of liberty which is not regulated by law. I fail to see any excel- 
lence in that kind of self-government where a minority, by means of 
the pistol and the bowie-knife, riot, murder, and assassination, subverts 
the Avill of the majority. I do uot envy the reputation or covet the 
glory that attaches to any Senator who stands in his place in the 
American Senate and defends a policy which shields treason, revolu- 
tion, and the whole catalogue of crimes, and strikes down those sub- 
lime safeguards of personal and political liberty secured in the four- 
teenth and lifteenth amendments to the Constitution. 



Jan nary 26, 1875. 

Mr. PEASE resumed and said : 

Mr. President, I now proceed to examine some of the statements 
that were presented to the Senate in the speech of my honorable friend 
from Georgia, [Mr. Gokdox.] The Senator stated upon "his honor 
as a gentleman, a Senator, and a man," that the people of Georgia 
are loyal to the United States. They have no war to make upon the 
United States. Well, sir, grant that they are loyal, does that entitle 
them to any special merit f One would suppose, from the Senator's 
earnest manner iu reminding the Senate and the American people of 
the present loyal attitude of the people of Georgia — " ?)i^ j^cojj/e," as 
he denominates them ; I suppose he refers to the white people, an 
oligarchy of twenty thousand slave-holders who have managed and 
controlled affairs iu Georgia for one hundred years — that he thought 
this entitled them to some special consideration and sympathy. That 
was the impression that I received from tlie protestations of the Sen- 
ator. Sir, loyalty is a good thing ; patriotism is commendable ; to love 
one's country and respect its flag is a good thing ; but when a people 
have to protest their loyalty in order to give it currency, it presents at 
least some grounds for suspicion or doubt as to its genuineness. 

'■ T\w hilly iloth protest too much, uiethiulis." 

Now, sir, as to the loyal attitude of the secession democracy of 
Georgia 

Mr. GORDON. Mr. President, my only reply is that I did not say 
anything of tliat sort at all. 

Mr. I'EASK. In reply to that feature of the Senator's speech as 
to the real loyalty that actuates the hearts of the class of people that 
he presented to us, I simply refer to one fact which occurred within 
a few nioaths in tliat State, and I presume it will not bo denied by 
the Senator, for it is notori;ms that in the organization of the militia 
in many portions of that State the companies that were organized 
un(h'r the law passed in 1873 absolutely refused to carry the Ameri- 
can flag. I have hero a petition which has been presented to Con- 
gress, signed l)y numerous persons living in Georgia, and I desire to 
read from c(^rtain portions of it : 

Tlie State of (rcorjria has received from the Ilnited States aiiiee (he (lose of the 
late warl.IFO hreeeli-loailinuM-iHe-imiskets, sTOriile-iiiiiskets, ,VJO i>istols, .M)0 cavalry 
sahers, 5 li^iht li jKiuinlei- hroiize villus, anil .50 iiou-eommissioiicil oltieers' swords 
with aceoiiteniiiiits, eartriil^ies, ^te., aniountiiig iu all to the value of fd-l, 105.38. 



25 

I uudcrstood the honorable Senator to say, in relation to this matter 
of arms in the hands of the people of the South, and particularly of 
Georgia, that not one white man in a hundred was armed now who 
was armed before the war. I venture the assertion that prior to tlie 
war they had no such armed and equipped militia as is set forth in 
the petition just read. I will add that, unless the people of Georgia 
are different from the white people in the vicinity where I reside, the 
men who are not armed are the exception to the rule. The carrying 
of concealed weapons is the crying evil of the whole southern country. 

I quote further from this petition : 

TliegovcriiDr has ilistiibuteil them as follows : To 21 white companies 1,180 breech- 
loadiii;; riHe<l inuski'ts ; lo U white compaiiit's TOO li tied muskets; to 10 wliite compa- 
nies 410 )iistols and -HO sabers ; aud to white eoinpauies 5 li^ht 12-pounder bronze 
guns ; to 3 colored companies but 150 ritled mnskets. It will be seen tliat 45 white 
companies have been armed with muskets, pistoLs, and sabers, and tliat but three 
colored companies have been armed ; tliat the lireeeh-loading ritled muskets ])istols, 
and sabers were all distributed to white companies, and the colored companies put 
otf with niuz/.li'-Ioadiui: nuiskets. Thi' f^overuor lias refused tooTnanize companies 
comjKised of colored men, as we lielieve, because they are colored nien. although it 
is made liis duty by the laws of tleoigia to organize all companies that have the 
requiic(l nuuiln-r of men I'uroUed. lie has refused to distribute arms, furnished to 
the State by the I'liited States, to companies composed of colored men, as we be- 
lieve, because they are colored men, in violation of the act of Congress of March 
3, 1873, which jirovides "that in the organization and eciuipmeut of military com- 
panies and oiganizations with said arms, iio discrimination shall be made on aceoiuit 
of race, color,'or former condition of servitude." Tour memorialists assert that it 
was the purpose of the Legislature in passing the acts of August 24. 1S72, and 
Pebruary 22, 1373, to so legislate that the governor could refuse to distribute arms 
to companies of colored men, and they furtlier assert that tht^ governor of Creorgia 
lias, in the organi/.ation and e(|uiiimrnt of military companies with tlie arms dis- 
tributed to the State bv tlii> United States, made a discrimination between said 
companies on account of race, color, aud former condition of servitude. 

Again, the memorialists say : 

Tour memorialists respectfully call your attention to the following additional 
facta : All or nearly all of the whitr comjianies are composed of men who fought 
in the coufeilerate army to ilestroy the Union. ^lany of the colored comjianies .ire 
composed of men who fought iu the Union Army to sustain the Government. The 
white companies choose the confederate gi'ay for their uniforms ; the colored com- 
panies prefer the Union blue. On the litth day of .Jaiuiary last the white compa- 
nies of Savannah celebrated the anniversary of the birtli of (Jeneral Kobert E. Lee, 
(to which, however, we did not object,) and were reviewed by (leneral Joseph E. 
Johnston. No natiiuial flag was disp]aye<l by tlie companies, twelve in all, although 
a confederate battle-tiag, carried througli the late war by the tifty-fonrth Georgn-v 
regiment, was noticed as the " brigade" marelied through the street, and it marked 
the post of honor where General .T(dinston stood to review the "brigade." Itecently 
three wliite companies in Atlanta met for parade, when the commander of the 
"battalion" requested the captain of one of the companies to send his colors, a 
national flag, from the line, saying the flag was objectionable to himself and the 
majority of the men in the companies, and they would not march iu the column 
with it. AVhen colored companies parade they honor the national flag. 

So much for the evidences of loyalty that pervade the Georgia 
militia. Again, the honorable Senator pleads most earnestly that his 
people are misunderstood. As reluctant as he is to appear in this de- 
bate, he could not, he says, remain silent in his x^lace and sufl'er the 
gratuitous insults which Senators on this side of the Chamber have 
deemed pi'oper to utter; he could not permit the peojilo of his section 
to rest under the impittation that they are murderers and assa.ssins, 
without raising a voice iu their defense. 

Sir, I will resent an unjust imputation or aspersion upon the' char- 
acter of the people of the South as promptly as the Senator. Far bo 
it from me to utter a word that would reflect upon the good people of 
Georgia or of any section of the country. I have the honor to repre- 
eeut on tliis floor a largo constituency made up of southern men, men 
^'to the manner born," and I would not willingly utter a word that 



2tJ 

would rei3ect upon the character of southern gentlemen ; and I take 
pleasure in saying that many Mississippians belong to the highest 
type of gentlemen. While I represent the class of men referred to, 
I have the honor — and I esteem it an honor — to represent also 
another class of people at tlie Soxith. I am one of the representa- 
tives of a people at the South mimbering between four and five 
million, who constitute tlie laboring classes of the country, the men 
who cultivate the cotton and the corn, who work the sugar fields ; 
and not only that class of laborers, but thousands of poor white 
men who, heretofore under the old regime, had no social or political 
privileges which the wealthy, chivalric planter was bound to respect, 
occupying a position lower in tlie social scale in that country than 
the veriest slave. In view of that fact, when the Senator and his 
colleagues upon that side of the Chamber undertake to say that there 
are no outrages practiced upon the negro and the poor whites of the 
South, that the people at the South are loyal to the Government, as 
was said by the Senator from Virginia [Mr. Johnston] yesterday — 
when they undertake to say that the negro has his rights, that the 
white i)eople of that country — I mean the dominant classes — are dis- 
posed to accord to the negro all the rights which are guaranteed to 
him under American law, I am compelled to deny that statement. 
It is an unpleasant duty which I have to perform ; but I am 
constrained to say that outrages are perpetrated at the South 
for political and partisan purposes, for the purpose of advancing the 
ends of secession democracy, the main object of that party being the 
final overthrow of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend- 
ments to the Constitution ; and for this reason I deem it my duty as a 
Senator to present to the Senate, unpleasant though it be, some of 
the facte which go to demonstrate that outrages, murders, assassi- 
nations, and lawlessness do exist at the South, and if it happens to fall 
Tipon any of the people of Georgia or of Mississippi, I cannot help it. 
They are responsible for their acts; they make their own history. 
The facts to which I propose to advert are matters of record, to be 
found in our courts of justice, and if in the course of this debate I 
shall allude to some unpleasant things, it will be simply a history of 
those men who are governed by their passions and not by their re- 
spect for law or the rights of others. The honorable Senator says, " I 
challenge the refutation of the declaration that wherever in the 
Southern States ])eople of intelligence have control of afi^'airs, prop- 
erty, life, and rights, political and personal, are as secure as in any 
State of this Union." Upon the truth or falsity of this statement 
hangs tlie solution of the southern question. The impression has 
obtained throughout the countrj^ that there is jieace, quiet, order, and 
adequate protection for person and property at the South, such pro- 
tection as tlie organic law of this country, affords to its citizens. This 
impression in relation to the conditif)n of the South has been brought 
about by the mendacious representations which have been continually 
made by the Associated Press at the South, such as : all the difficulties, 
outrages, &c.,Avere perpetrated by the negroes and those whom they 
please to call " carpet-baggers," who encourage hostility between the 
races, array the negro against the white man, plunder and misgovern 
the people of the South ; that when negroes are killed by white men, 
it is done in defending their wives and chihb'cn, their lives and their 
property. 

The cr^-ing evil of the South to-day, and it is not confined to any 
one locality, it obtains generally tlironghout the South, is the preva- 
lence of lawlessness, the inadequate protection of property, and the 



27 

insecurity of human life. Tbe pistol, Lo^vie-knife, and shot-gun are 
resorted to in the settlement of personal difficulties, and to an alarm- 
ing extent for political and partisan purposes. It is a most lamenta- 
ble fact, "which brings a blush of shame to the cheek of a southern 
man when he is compelled to speak the truth. Public sentiment has 
become so vitiated, so demoralized, that the people of the South place 
a low estimate ujion human life. The crime of murder is seldom 
punished. The exceptions, however, are against the negro. He is 
invariably punished. Justice in the South is loth to shield its sword 
when the criminal is a colored man. You may search the records of 
the criminal proceedings in the South since the war, and I venture 
the assertion that you will not find one single instance where there 
was a scintilla of proof against a negro who committed homicide but 
that he has been punished — either hung, or incarcerated in the State's 
prison for life. In the State of Louisiana thirty-five hundred niTir- 
dershave been committed since 1866, and I undertake to say, tliat not 
one of the murderers have been punished in that State to this good 
day. I quote from the report of General Sheridan, as follows : 

[Telegram.] 

New Oelean'S, January 10, 1875—11.30 p. m. 
Hon. W. W. Belknap, 

Secretary of War, Washinofori, D. C. : 

Since the year 1866, nearly thirty-five hundred persons, a great majoiity of whom 
were colored men, have heen killed and wounded in this State. In 1868 the official 
record show.s that eighteen hun<lreil ami eighty-four were killed and wounded. 
From 1868 to the present time unotHcial investigation has heen made, and the civil 
authorities in all but a few cases liave l>een unable to arrest, convict, and punish 
perpetrators. Conse(iuently, tliere are no correct records to be consulted for infor- 
mation. There is ample evi'deuee, hmvever, to show thatmore than twrlvf hundred 
persons have been killed and wouuded during this time, on account of their polit- 
ical sentiments. Frightful massacres have occurred in the pari.shes of Bossier, 
Caddo, Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Saint Landry, Grant, and Orleans. The general 
character of the massacres in the above-named parishes is so well known that it is 
Tinnecessary to describe them. 

The isolated cases can best be illustrated by the following instances, which I 
take from a m.nss of evidence now lying before me of men killed on account of their 
political principles: In Natchitoches r;nish the number of isolated cases reported 
is tliirty-tliM'c. In the parish of Bienville the number <if men killed is thirty. In 
Ked liiver I'aTish the isolated cases of men killed is thirty-lour. In AVinn Parish 
the nnmVier of isolated cases where men were killed is tifteeu In Jackson Parish 
the nu:ubei' killed is twenty ; and in Catahoula Parish the number of i.solated cases 
repoited where men were killed is fifty, and most of the country parishes through- 
out the State will show a coiTes])(indiug state of affairs. The following statements 
will illustiati^ the chai'acter and kind (if these outrages: 

On the 30th of August, 1871, in lied liiver Parish, six State and parish officers, 
named Twitchell, Divers, Holland, Howell, Edgerton, and "Willis, were taken, to- 
gether with four negroes, under guard to be carried out of the State, and were 
deliberately murdered on the 29th of August, 1864. The White League tried, sen- 
tenced, and hung two negroes on the 28th of August, 1874. Tlirei^ negroes were 
shot and killed at Brownsville, just before the arrival of the Fnited States troops 
in this parish. Two white-leagners rode up to a negro cabin and called for a drink 
of water. When tbe old colored man turned to draw it, they shot him in the back 
and killed him. The courts were all broken up in this district, and the district 
judge driven out. 

In the pari.sh of Caddo, prior to the arrival of the United States troops, all of the 
officers at Shreveport were compelled to abdicate by the "White League, which took 
possession of the place. Among those obliged to abdicate were "Walsh, the mayor, 
Eapers, the sherifi', "Wheatou, clerk of flu- court, Duraut, the recorder, and Fergu- 
son and Kenfio, administrators. Two eolored men who jiad given evidence in re- 
gard to frauds connnittc-d in the parish were compelled to tiee for their lives, and 
reached this city last night, having been smuggled throuj;li in a cargo of cotton. 

In the parish' of Bossier the "White League have attenqited to force the abdica- 
tion of Judge Baker, flie United States coramis.sioner and pari.sh judge, together 
with O'Neal, the .sheriff, and Walker, the clerk of the court; aud they have com- 
pelled the parish and district courts to suspend operations. Judge Baker states 



28 

that the white-leaguers notified him several times that if he became a candidate on 
the republican ticket, or if lie attempted to organize the republican party, he should 
not live until election. 

This statement is a sad commentary npon the administration of 
justice in Louisiana. What is true of Louisiana, is true of every other 
Southern State ; and I propose to substantiate wliat 1 say before I 
tinish my remarks. I shall iiot leave it open to uncertainty. I will 
endeavor to show to our friends on the other side of the Chamber, 
who have attempted in this debate to cover up the fact, that murder 
and outrage obtain iu the South ; and I charge it upon them that 
they have attempted to cover up and treat Avith indifference amount- 
ing to contempt these facts, because it militates against their party 
and their party policy. I say to our democratic friends that it will 
not do. The time has come when the Auicrican people will be de- 
ceived no longer by newspaper correspondents from the South — men 
who are in tlie employ of secession democrats. The time has come 
when the American people will demand the facts. The evidence 
to-day is clear that the American people are beginning to appreciate 
the gravity of the situation at the South. 

It has been represented that the republican party are attempting 
to get up another "bleeding Kansas" for political effect; that they 
were parading these outrages in order that they might excite sym- 
pathy. That has been iterated and reiterated in this Hall during 
this discussion ; but the American people, I am happy to know, are 
beginning to investigate this matter for themselves. When the 
noble hero Sheridan, an honest, brave, patriotic soldier, states that the 
very atmosphere of Louisiana is "impregnated" Avith assassination, 
the American people begin to feel that it is possible, notwithstand- 
ing the democratic press of the country have denied and suppressed 
the facts, that there may be some truth in it after all ? 

Now, as to the matter of tlie administration of justice, and I speak 
from personal knowledge, I have not been a casual observer of the 
events of the South for the last twelve or fifteen years; I have been 
intimately connected Avith every form and phase, Avith CA^ery shifting 
aocial or political scene in the South since the Avar. I am familiar 
with the cA'cnts of the Avhole period of transition from slaA'ery to 
freedom, and I knoAV whereof I speak Avhen I say, that as a rule there 
is no such thing as couA'iction for the crime of murder in the South, 
especially where a colored man is the victim. We haA^e some as able, 
honest, and faithful judges as CA'cr graced the bench ; but there is a 
vitiated public sentiment in the South that controls our courts, con- 
trols our juries, controls all our ministers of justice. A white man may 
slay a negro, and it may be proA'en as clear as the noonday sun that 
it Avas a case of murder Avith malice aforethought ; and yet you can- 
not get a jury to convict, and in nine cases out of ten you cannot get 
a grand jury to indict a Avhite man for killing a negro or a poor 
Avhite man. 

But change the scene. Suppose a negro has committed some crime. 
The Avhole country is in arms. A negro has nmrdered a Avhite man 
perhaps. The Associated Press throughout the South darts its light- 
ning messages all OA'er this country proclaiming a negro riot. The 
people in tlie section Avhere the homicide is committed pretend to bo 
alarmed. Tlie slogan is taken up by the Ku-Klux and White League 
clans, and suddenly there is a hurrying to and fro. The negro is ar- 
rested, and in many cases he is not tried, but summary punishment is 
administered without judge or jury. Where a white man kills a ne- 
gro the form of an inquest is sometimes lield, and the verdict in niuo 



29 

cases out of ten is a farce, soinetliiiiji; after tliis manner: "Tliat tlio 
negro came to his deatli by an inordinate desire to run after a white 
man's pistol." Tliat is about tlie way the matter is determined. In 
this connection, in regard to the statement made by the distinguished 
Senator from Georgia, in reply to the Senator from Indiana, that in 
Georgia there was as much protection for human life, for property, 
and all the rights of a citizen as obtain in the State of Indiana, allow 
me to present some statistical facts in relation to the prevalence of 
crime in the South, taken from the census of 1870. In the State of 
Maine, containing a population of 6'26,915, we find that there were 
7 homicides in the year 1870. In the State of New Hampshire, 
containing a population of 318,300, there was 1 homicide. In Ver- 
mont thei'o was none. In M.'issachusetts, containing a i)opulation 
of 1,457,351, there were 22 homicides. In Rhode Island, 5. In Con- 
jiecticut, (5, containing a population of over half a million. In New 
York, containing 4,000,000 inhabitants, out of that number there were 
70 homicides. In New Jersey, 5. In Pennsylvania, 60. In Oliio, con- 
taining a population of 2,000,000, there were 54. In Michigan, con- 
taining a population of 1,184,000, there were 11 homicides. In Indi- 
ana, the State the distinguished Senator from Georgia referred to, 
containing a population of 1,680,637 inhabitants, there were 32 homi- 
cides in 1870. In Wisconsin, 6. In Illinois, 56. In Minnesota, 5. In 
Iowa, 24. In Nebraska, 11. Kansas, 42. Total in all these States, 417. 

Now I come to the Southern States, and I call the attention of the 
Senator from Georgia to those particularly where the affairs of the 
State are under the control of the "intelligent and honest people," 
Avhere their laws are properly executed, where there is the same sort 
of protection, as the Senator says, to property and to life that obtains 
in Indiana. In the State of Delaware, containing 125,000 inlialjitants, 
there were 4 homicides. In Maryland, with only 780,000 inlialiitants, 
20 homicides. In the District of Columbia, 13. Virginia, including 
West Virginia, containing a million and a half of population, 80 homi- 
cides. In Kentucky, containing over 1,000,000 inhabitants, 73 homi- 
cides. In North Carolina, 48. In Tennessee, containing 1,258, .520 
inhabitants, 117 homicides. In South Carolina, containing 705,000 
inhabitants, there were 36. In Georgia, containing 1,184,100 inhab- 
itants, we find in the year 1870 160 murders; while in the State of 
Indiana for the same year, containing about the same population, wo 
find only 32. There is the difference. In Georgia, 116. In Florida, 
44. In Mississip])i, 89. In Missouri, 94. In Arkansas, 76. Louisiana, 
128. In Texas, 323. Now, these statistics of murder were gathered 
from the records of the courts. They were not gotten up in any " out- 
rage-mill" or for any political jiui-poses. They are matters of statistics 
that are placed in the archives of the Government. Wo find in these 
Southern States during one year 1,361 murders compared with 417 in 
the Northern States. There is no question in my mind but that at 
the time these statistics were gathered there were hundreds, yes, I 
may say, a thousand more murders, the only evidence of which was 
the bones of the victims lying in the swamps or perhaps newspaper 
reports, not followed by prosecution. 

I have some further evidence upon this matter of crime which 
I desire to present — and I will be as brief as possible — a statement 
that is made up, giving the number of murders, and by whom per- 
petrated, and upon whom, in the State of Arkansas since its recon- 
struction or since the war. Out of a population in 1870 of 122,169 
blacks, and 362,115 whites, the number of murders and assaults with 
intent to kill committed in that State since reconstruction aggregated 



30 

eleven laundred and sixty-nine. These facts are taken from the records 
of the courts. They are not all murders, but eleven hundred and 
sixty-nine comprise murders and assaults with intent to kill. Of 
those by whom these murders and crimes were committed ten himdred 
and seventy-eight are whites, and only eighty-two are blacks. An- 
other feature of this statement is, that the victims are eight hundred 
and sixty-five republicans, and three hundred and four democrats — 
nearly three to one. There, sir, is a phase of the character of these 
outrages and murders, where nearly three to one of the victims of 
murder are rei^ublicans. What inference shall we draw from that ? 
Can we draw any other than that these murders are perpetrated to 
further the partisan ends of a certain party f It is a singular coinci- 
dence that in this State three to one of the victims of outrage and mur- 
der happen to belong to the republican iiarty. I hold in my hand, but 
I will not detain the Senate by reading it, a list of murders committed 
in my own State in the year 1874. They amount to ninety-nine. I 
have the names of the victims taken from the records of the auditor 
of pul)lic accounts, where the payments have been made for expenses 
in holding coroners' inquests. This does not include the one hundred 
colored men massacred at Vicksburgh, December 7, nor any of the 
numerous murders VL]}on which no coroners' inquest fees were paid by 
the State. In the State of Mississippi there has been up to within 
the last six months less lawlessness, better order, more protection 
for life and property than perhaps in any other southern Stat*. 

It is a notorious fact, a matter that will not bo questioned, that 
Mississippi is one of the best reconstructed States among the fifteen 
insurrectionary States. We have not had, with but few exceptions, 
the difficulties that have characterized other Southern States. We 
have had good government. No charge of misgovernment has been 
brought against Mississippi. We have had there the best j udicial sys- 
tem probably of any Southern State. We have administered justice. 
Our ministers of justice have held the scales evenly balanced ; 
yet, notwithstanding all these safeguards, notwithstanding these 
facts, in that State alone, containing less than a million of inhabi- 
tants, we have had ninety-nine murders during the last year. And 
jet it is stated that in the South, where intelligent men have control 
of the government, there is no more crime, that there is as much pro- 
tection for human life as in Indiana. I am sorry to be obliged to 
stand in my place in the Senate and present these facts; they are 
shameful facts, but they are nevertheless true. It ouly goes to show 
that there is a vitiated public sentiment at the South ui)on the subject 
of murder. If a man fancies that his neighbor has insulted him, his 
redress is the pistol, bowie-knife, or shot-gun. 

Now, sir, I propose to refer the Senate to the evidence, and I call 
the attention of our friends on the other side of the Chamber to the 
character of the evidence that I propose to adduce. It is evidence, 
I presume to say, they will not question, because it comes from un- 
willing witnesses. It proceeds from statements made by the leading 
democratic journals of the South. It does not come from any south- 
ern " outrage-mill ; " it docs not proceed from any "southern outrage- 
convention," that gets up these statements of lawlessness for political 
efi'ect. It is from a pure democratic source, and relates to one of the 
Southern States which has never been demoralized by " carpet-bag" 
rule. No strangers have robbed and plundered the people and thereby 
goaded them, "like the teaser in the Spanish bull-lights" referred to 
by tlie honorable Senator froui Georgia in his speech, into acts of 
violence and lawlessness. I refer to the State of Kentucky. I will 



31 

read an extract from one of the leading jonrnals of that State ; and 
let me say, while I do not pretend that newspaper statements are the 
most reliable evidence, I think I will be allowed to quote from demo- 
cratic journals on this question of outrage and murder in the South. 

Says the Louisville Courier-Journal in relation to crime in that 
State : 

The shooter has only to kill or wound his man to make liimself certain of escape. 

That is the way justice is administered in the good old Common- 
wealth of Kentucky, the home of Henry Clay. 

"We never convict anybody of murder except a nigger or a pauper. 

That is the statement of the editor of the Louisville Courier-Jour- 
nal. I desire to repeat that — 

"We never convict anybody of murder except a nigger or a pauper. 

He never penned a truer statement in his life ; and what is true of 
Kentucky is true to a greater or less extent of every State south of 
the Ohio River. 

I will quote more democratic authority on this question of the prev- 
alence of crime in the State of Kentucky, where, I repeat, no car- 
pet-baggers and negroes have ruled the country. That State has 
been in the hands of intelligent, patriotic, high-minded southern 
democrats. Here is an extract from the " Lexington, Missouri, Cau- 
casian," a leading democratic paper, one of these white-line papers. 
Its very name indicates the character of its politics, advocating the 
doctrine that this is a " white man's " Government, and that a negro 
has no right that a white man is bound to respect. It says : 

Kentucky's criminal record rivals Missouri's — and human language can award 
it no more appalling pre-eminence. 

That is a serious reflection on both these good democratic States. 
The diction of this editor is not as pure as it might be, but it is char- 
acteristic of democratic journalism in the South — 

Hell seema to have been upset and spilled all over the South. 

That is the expression of a democratic editor speaking of a neigh- 
boring State. He says that from tlie lawlessness that j)revails in the 
State of Kentucky "Hell seems to have been upset and spilled all 
over the State." He then says : 

Its very sod is reeking with the blood of slaughter. 

This statement was penned only a few months ago, not at the time 
referred to by the distinguished Senator from Missouri, [Mr. SCHURZ,] 
when he undertook to palliate the condition of things at tlie South 
immediately after the war and the necessary demoralization that 
followed the terrible revolution, but ten years, a decade, has passed, 
and yet a democratic editor says that the very sod of the good old 
State of Kentucky is "recking with tlie blood of slaughter." But he 
goes on : 

Eleven murders, twenty-two shooting and stabbing affrays, and the wholesale 
killings and burnings at Lancaster, all in four weeks," and not one legal hanging in 
four times as long, is enough to blast for a generation the fame of any ordinary 
half-dozen Commonwealths, even though the bones of Clay and Crittenden reposed in 
each of them. It is a horrid blot ui)on southern civilization. 

There is a statement made by a democratic editor representing the 
extremest doctrines of the secession democracy. He says that it is 
a " horrid blot upon southern civilization ; " yet when a republican 
stands in his place in this Senate and makes the statement that 



32 

murder, assassination, lawlessness, and oiitraj^e have prevailed at 
the South, the Senator from Georgia rises to his feet and pronounces 
the statement "false." This was his language. Another Senator 
rises and says it is " exaggerated." The Senator from Georgia again 
says : " We have as much peace, qiiiet, order, and protection for 
human life and property in the South, ' where intelligent men' con- 
trol, as in any northern State." Yet here is a statement made by a 
democratic editor that the condition of things in the State of Ken- 
tucky is a "horrid blot upon southern civilization." If a republican 
editor had uttered that sentiment in certain sections of tlie South, he 
Avould have been waited upon by a band of white-leaguers, and hung 
up to the first tree. Because the noble hero, Sheridan, happened 
to say in a dispatch to the President, speaking of the condition 
of things in Louisiana, that there were "banditti" there, lawless- 
men banded together for plunder, for riot, for revolution, he is abused, 
traduced, aspersed, and a Senator from his seat in this Senate says, 
because he designated these assassins by the only projier name which 
would express their true character, that this gallant soldier and pa- 
triot is " not tit to breathe the air of a free republic." Yet a southern 
editor of a democratic paper is compelled to admit that crime in Ken- 
tucky is of such a terrible character as to become "a blot upon southern 
cicilizatiou." 

It gives a tinge of justice — 

Says this editor — 
to the Yankee howl about our ruffiauism, heatlienisra, barbarism. 

O, how indignant was the honorable Senator from Georgia the 
other day at the mere mention by the Senator from Vermont of the 
term " barbarism," as applied to the customs of the South of former 
days! His virtuous indignation knew no bounds, and we did not 
know at one time but that the mild-mannered Senator of New Eng- 
land would have to face a dueling-pistol or submit to be " posted'* 
as a coward, after the most approved style of so-called "chivalry." 

I have many other quotations from democratic sources. I will read,, 
however, for the edification of our democratic friends, one more state- 
ment taken from the same paper, in relation to the condition of 
things in Kentucky. Says the Louisville Courier-Journal : 

Tlio law against carrying concealed weapons is a dead letter. There has scarcely 
been a conviction of a respectable, well to do man for murder or homicide within, 
the last twenty years. Every coward and bully goes armed. Every case of human 
slaughter goes unpunished. Every case of shooting with intent to kill passes by as 
an aiuusiuL; cpisoilc,, ])r(p\i(l(-d there is no funeral. Even the most atrocious, cold- 
blooded, delibi'iatc, maligiiiint, dastardly assassinations have left no mark on tho 
statute-books except tho mark of ac(iuittal purchased by money or intimidation. 

This is the statement of a democratic journal in regard to the law- 
abiding and law-loving people of Kentucky, where no carpet-bagger 
has plundered her treasury, where no negro has ruled, that there 
is a public sentiment, says this democratic editor, that absolutely 
intimidates tho law-respecting people. A Jury cannot indict, a petit 
jury cannot convict because of this intimidation ; and yet we are told 
there is no intimidation, in tlie South. I appeal to the good sense of 
any nuiu if lawless men can intimidate tho noble, patriotic men of old 
Kentucky so that her courts fail to convict of crime, Avhat can they 
not do in Louisiana ? And yet, sir, in the face of these admitted 
facts, wo are told that the statements altout intimidation, murder, 
and outrage are all gotten up for " inditical effect ;" " exaggerated," 
says tho lionorable Si-nator from Ohio, [Mr. Thuk.m.vx.] "I do not 
stand u]) here," he says, " to defend murder, but I propose to protest 



33 

against tliosn exajigerations." Great heavens! where iji the history 
of any civilized country is there such an arraignment as this demo- 
cratic editor presents to the worhl of the condition of tilings in the 
State of Kentncky. It is euongh to appall the civilization of the 
nineteenth century, that in this Christian hind, in tlie State of Ken- 
tucky, men can murder, can attempt to murder, and the law-abiding 
people who believe in protecting life and property are so intimidated 
that a grand jiuy will not indict, nor a petit jury convict. That is 
the condition of things in Kentucky; and jet Senators say there is 
no murder in the Sovith. This editor goes on to say : 
Red-liantled nmrdeiers roam at large among re.«i)ectable jieople. — 
Not among negx'oes, not among " carpet-baggers" and " scalawags,'' 
but among "respectable people'' — 

The rule is that yoii may kill your man with inipimity. . There is no danger of 
the gallows or the prison for the assassin who has money or friends. A drink too 
many, a word too much, a pull of the trigger of a sis-shooter, and a funeral, so 
the murderer he a good-natnred fellow and is rich enough to pay the iiddler. That 
is the way the law wags in iventucky. 

I desire here to cite some further autliority upon the conditiou of 
things in the South as relates to crimes committed, of a political 
character. The Senator from Georgia said to tlie honorable Senator 
from Indiana, " Wliy do you not arraign the metropolitan press of the 
North ? You say that the associated press of the South have been 
peddling lies, have been attempting to cover up outrage and murder. 
Why do you not cite the New York Times ?" I projjose to give the 
honorable Senator and the Senate a quotation from the New York 
Times in a recent publication of that journal. 

Says the Times, of date January 2 : 

Thousands of men voted the democratic ticket in the State of Alabama against 
their conviction fi'om fear of violence or loss of employment, and many thousands 
more failed to vote at all from the same cause. 

And yet there is no intimidation in Alabama ! 

The northern people can have no conception of the state of smietyhere, and 
the testiuKiiiy taken before the connnittce cannot l)iit make :i dci'i* impression. 
The evidr-iu'e fully sliows that a rejjublican form of govi^rument cannot be main- 
tained in the State of Alabama without the aid of the United States troops. 

And yet that State is under democratic control; "intelligent, honest 
men control its government!" 

The evidence shows that the churches and school-houses of the colored people were 
burned and destroyed by white democrats, only because the colored people who 
worshiped and sent their children to school therein were republicans ; that armed 
white democrats, in companies of hundreds, visited some of the more intelligent of 
these colored people, beat them, and drove them from their homes. 

Here are some of the good, law-loving, quiet people of Georgia 
referred to : 

On the Georgia border white democrats came to this State and voted not only 
once, but in some knstances three times, and led negroes to the polls and made 
them vote tin- denuicratic ticket. At fiinird, in Knsscll Connty. thr iiolice fi-oiu 
Columbus, (ii'ori:!:!, surrounded the polls and ke|it ])ossessi<in oi them all day. It 
has al.-io been founil Hiat the ]:olls at Spring Jlill, J'arli(.)ur County, were destroyed 
by democi'iits, and about six humlred votes lost to the repuhlieans, and the son of 
.fudge Kiels, who was the United States sujiervisor, was killed; nlso, one hundred 
and tifty colored republicans killed and wounded at J'iui'aula, in the same county, 
on the day of election by armed democrats, and upward of tive hundred republicaii 
voters driven away from the polls. 

Not a particle of eviiience has been furnished by the Alabama democi'ats or any 
body else that the United States troops in the slightest de'j,iee interfered with »ho 
election. On the other hand, the subordinate militaiy ollicers were so bouud up 
by General Order No. 75 that they did not feel authorized to do anything or extend 

3q 



-any helpvvliatpverto theelootion oJificers, except when called upon to assist United 
States marshals in the execution of writs issued by the United States courts. The 
proscri](tion, social ostracism, withdrawal of business, and loss of eniplo,i,Tnent 
amoDS republicans on account of politics amounts to a reign of terror, and thou- 
sands of voters were lost to the republican parly at the late election from these 
causes. 

This is a statement publi.shed to the worhA by the New York Times, 
"which the lioiiorable Senator from Georgia desired, witli a sliglit tinge 
of sarcasm, the honorable Senator from Indiana to iuclnde in his ani- 
madver.sion upon the Associated Press of theSonth. I am informed 
that the committee who have investigated this matter will present 
not only tliese facts, but stronger facts, showing that a reign of terror, 
murder, and assassination prevails in the State of Ahibania. I will 
read the statement of a citizen of Alabama, and a man of no mean 
repute, a man who was born in that State, who has occupied the hon- 
orable position of its chief magistrate. He says in a recent jniblic 
utterance : 

The liu-KJux and Wliite League are in existence. How can justice be done in a 
community where they abound, when the oath they take to the organization is 
obeyed before the one they take to the State? This prowling about tile couutr-y at 
night to kill lone men is not the chivalry of the past nor is it the chivalry of the 
late war. 

That is thi .statemcut of ex-Governor Parsons. He has always 
been a con.' creative man in his political views. He was among the 
foremost Alabamiaus when the State seceded. He did his utmosr 
after his State had gone out of the Union to stand by the confederat*^ 
cause. He says that these Ku-Klux, these Wlnfe League orgamzations 
do exist ; and that justice cannot be executed in the country where they 
exist, because the jurymen who are sworn to pass upon crimes are 
bound by the oaths of their organization, which they regard as para- 
mount to the oath they take to do justice between man and man, to 
decide upon the law and evidence without fear or favor. 

Permit me in this connection to submit several extracts from the 
President's message in proof of the existence and purposes of the 
White Letxgue banditti : 

The following is from the platform of the White League, adopted at Alto on the 
11th of July: 

" That we regard it the sacred aiul )>oliti(al dutyof every member of this club to 
discouulcnancc and socially iimscribc all w hilc men who unite themselves with 
the radical i)aity, and to sn])plant every political opponent in all his vocations by 
the employment and support of tliose who ally themselves with the white man's 
party; and we pledge ourselves to exert our energies and use our means to the 
consummating of this end." 

The following is from the Enterprise of the 6th of August, published at Franklin, 
Saint Marys I'arish : 

"\Vc ask for no assistance; we- protest against any intervention. * * * Wg 
own this soil of Louisiana, by virtue of our endeavor, as a heritage from our 
ancestors, and it is ours and ours alone. Science, literature, history, art, civiliza- 
tion, and law li(d(mg alone to us, and not- to tlie negroes. They have no record but 
barbarism and idolatry, nothing sini^e the war but that of error, incapa<ity, beast- 
liness, voudonisni, and crime. Their rigiit to vote is but the result of the war, 
their cxenisc of it ii luoiistroits impositon, and a vindictive punislinieut upon u.s 
for that ill-advistd rclicllion." 

"Till i< lore arc we b;niiliiig together in a White League army, drawn up only on 
the dcfi iisivc, ixaspcralcd by contiiuial wrong, it is true, but acting under Chris- 
tian and higli-piiuciidcd leaders, anil chrtermiiied to defeat these negroes in their 
infamous desigiL ai depriving ns of all we hold sacred and precious on the soil of 
our nativity or ;uloptioii. or ]>erisli in the atteni])t. 

"Conu' wiuU, may, upon the radical paity nui.st rest the whole responsibility of 
ihis conjiict. and as sure as there is a .ju.d (^tod in heaven their uunaturu!, (^old- 
blooded, and revengeful measiu'es of reconstruction in lAnxitiiiiw.i ivill meet with a 
it'rriile retributimi." 



35 

Tlie t'o)l<iwiii,a' is from flio iliiiflen Dcmoci'at : 

" The, reiuciry for all the evils that aliiiit our State iiud every Soulliern State 
under ne^ro aiul carpet-bag rule is very simj)le. The iureurtiaries who flood our 
country at tiie approaoli of every election must be looked after ; the proceedings of 
miduiiilit gatherings in dark and gloomy places must be known. Incendiary 
teachings di 1 he cariiet-baggers and scalawags to inflame the minds of the uegroeti 
must ncit lie tolerated agaiu." 

The f'.)llowing is from the Mansfield Re])orter of July 4 and July 11 : 

" There is nothing to be gained by pleadings or concessions, but everything is 
within our reacli, if we will move for\v;ivd and grasp it. Let our actions be such 
that everybodii inll knoio what we ivaat. u ml let them see that we are in earnest and 
are deterniined tn carry out theirroiinuii m,'. r<yardless of the consequences.'^ 

" The lines must lie drawn at once, IhIulc our opponents are thoroiiglily organ- 
ized, for by this means we will prevent many milk anil-cider fellows from falling 
iuto the enemy's ranks. "While the wliile man's party guarantees th«' ncuro all of 
his present riglits. ///.// dn luit inUtnl tlmt niiit ■ ritrpcf-h:uiitn's and micfindrs shall be 
permitted toorqanhi n.nl jur/i'n-i' tin- nrirni's/i,,- lh, euiiiiii;! rn ni/'Utijn. Without the 
assistance of tliesr \iliaiiis liic neiirors an- totally iucajiaule of ■'ll'erlually ormin- 
izing themselves, and unless Ihey are previously exciteil and drilled, one-half of 
them will ii'it c(i))ie to the polls, and a large i)ercentage of the remainder wiit vote the 
while man's ticket." 

The following is from the Alexandria Democrat of July 15 : 

"The peojde have determined that the Iveliogg government has to be gotten rid 
of, and tliey will not scruple about the niernis, as tliey have done in the past." 

The following is from the Slirevejiort Tinies of July -•' : 

"There has been some red-handed work done in this parish that was necessary, 
but it was evidently done by cool, determined, and just men, who knew just how 
far to go, and we doubt not if the same kind of work is necessary it will be done. 

We say a^ain that we fully, cordially, approve what the white men of Grant and 
Rapides diti at Colfax; the white man wlio does not is a creature .so base that he 
.shames the worst class of his species. "We say, agaiu, we are going to carry the 
elections in tliis State next fall. 

"If the l-'edeial government again strikes them down then let the infamy of the 
deed rest upon the shameless despotism that has arisen out of the malignity and 
hate of the northern peojde. Ixiu-ath whose withering intlueiu'e no sentiment of 
liberty can .survive; under whosi' policy of meaiuiess, cowardice, and hate, every 
community that does not worship it nnist be trampled in the dust, and every civili- 
zation ttiat does not pay tribute to it Ida.sted by its curse." 

The following pretimblc and resolutions were adopted by White 
League No. 1 of tlie second ward of Living,stou Parish: 

Resolved. That we will have no man on our farms or in our workshoi)s who votes 
the radical ticket. 

Be it farther resolved. That we consider it the duty of (and cordially invite) all 
white men o])]iosed to radicalism to co-operate with us. 

Furlher resolved. That we consider it beneath our moral dignity to associate with 
any white man who votes the republican ticket or afdliutes with that party in any 
manner whatever. 

Further resolved, Tliat we pledge our support to the democratic party. 

Next as to Tennessee. In three counties in Tennessee, the counties 
of Rutherford, Sumner, and Gibson, during the past year, there have 
been thirty-nine murders. Tennessee is a State governed by no car- 
pet-baggers ; no negroes control ailairs in that State ; and yet in three 
counties alone this is a matter of record. It is no information that 
comes from an " outrage-mill," but is taken from the records of their 
conrts; facts that cannot be controverted. In three counties during 
the last year thirty-nine murders have been committed ; and yet the 
honorable Senator from Georgia says that in a Southern State where 
"intelligent men" control, where" luuiest men" govern, tlicu-e is as 
much protection to human life as there is in any of the Northern 
States. 

I desire to have incorporated in my speech — I will not weary the 
Senate by reading it, because I know that almost every Senator is 
familiar with it — the statement of the district attorney for the 
western district of Tennessee in his report to the Attorney-General : 

I have the honor to say that from affidavits now on file in myoffice the following 
iacts ajipear: Since the election on theWh of ,\ugu8t last hands of men, armedaud 



36 

in disguise ami known as the Ku-Klux Klan, have hiMni liding thiough cortaiu, 
portious of Gibsou County, in this district, almost every uight, eonmnttiug out- 
rages upon tlie colored people, in some instances whi])ping them and in others- 
threatening to kill them ; and on Saturday night, August Iti, a number of colored 
people were shot at on their return home from churcli by certain of these masked 
men. An old negro named Joshua was severely whi))ped, and at the time was told 
by the Ku-Klux "tliat they should again visit liim on Saturday night. August 22. 
Thereupon, on that night,' several of" his colored nciglibors started to go and assist 
the old man iu defending himself, and on tlie way thitlier were met i)y a party of 
men, aimed, mounted, and in disguise, who lirst fired upon them, they returning 
the fire, and cither killing or wounding a mule ; whereupon both parties tied. 

This is, as I suppose, "the conspiracy to take the lives of the wliite citizens of 
the neighboihood " for which " sixteen negroes were committed to the jail of Gib- 
son County iu this State," referred to in Governor Brown's telegram. The next 
day, Sunday, the State authorities commenced arresting tlie black men in the 
vicinity alniost indiscriminately, taking, among others, two colored preacliei's out 
of their chuiches. Tlie prisoners so arrested were confined and guarded to await 
their preliminary trial the next day. During that night some of these prisoners 
were taken out of the building in which they were contined by some of the guard, 
and by means of thieats, and in one instance by hanging the prisoner to a tree, 
confessions were extorted from them, which confessions, so obtained, were used 
as testimony against them in their examination before the committing I'ourt. 

During Monday and Tuesday, August 24 and 25, sixteen black men were com- 
mitted to the jail of the county; fourteen as criminals, the other two as witnesses 
against them. They were conducted on fodt to the jail, a distance of eleven miles, 
hound together witli trace-chains abouttlieir necks secured by padlocks, twelve be- 
ing committed on Monday and four on Tuesday, while the sheiilf's posse who con- 
veyed tlu'iu thither were mounted. On their way to the jail on Monday two at- 
tempts were made by armed men in disguise to obtain possession of these colored 
prisoners, twelve in numlH-r, but the attemids were unsuccessful. Fourteen of the 
prisoners were eouliued together in a small cell in the jail, two being left in the hall 
of the jail. On Tuesday night, August 2."), a band of masked men, armed, and gen- 
erally mounted, variously estimated to number from seventy-five to one hundred 
and fifty, surrounded the jail, forcibly entered it, took out those sixteen colored 
prisoners, tied them togi^tiier with ropes, luarched them a few hundred yards dis- 
tant to a l>ridge crossing a small rivei, and couinienced shooting them indiscrimi- 
nately, then and there killiirg four and wounding others, one of whom has since died 
of his wounds, and some are known to have escaped. 

We have these reports lying on our tahle.s as to the character of 
crime iu the State of Teuuessee, especially iu relation to the Trenton 
affair. Iu this conuectiou, allow me to say, that we have iu that report 
an exhibitiou of the couditiou of tilings as rcgartls the courts of the 
cDuntry. One Senator says: "Why do you republicans of the South 
complain that you cannot get justice? thatyourlaws are not executed? 
that crime is not punished f You have the executive officers, you con- 
trol the courts, you control the constabulary forces, and why is it that 
you cannot get justice and punish crime; who is to blame?" In that 
report you will ascertain the condition of things in the State of Ten- 
nessee. A murderer has an opportiuiity under the laws of that State 
of challenging thirty-tive jurors; and in the case there reported, 
"where there is a conspiracy, a large number of men indicted, when 
they come to be tried, each ojie of them has au opportunity to chal- 
lenge thirty-tive jurors; and there are so many included in the,se 
indictments that they can challenge the whole county perenijjtorily, 
and you cannot impanel a jury to convict them. And a similar law 
obtains in many of the Southern States. 

We are asked " How is it that you do not punish crime at the 
South ?" I can answer that question so far as it relates to the State 
of Mississippi. I blush when I say it, but the cause of truth, the 
interest I feel in presenting the facts to the American Senate and the 
American people, compel me to say that in the State of Mississippi, 
where our laws are executed with as nuich impartiality as iu any 
other southern State, I do not know among the several hundred 
homicides committed in that State a single instance, since recon- 
struction, where a white man has been convicted of killing a negro; 



37 

iind I ventu e the assertion tliat there have been over live hundred 
murders of negi'oes in that State by white men, and not one of them 
punished; but I do know of a hxr^e number of colored men who 
have been hung or incarcerated within our penitentiary walls for 
even making an assault upon a white man with intent to kill. Sir, 
it is impossible to convict a white niau of murder, because if a white 
man kills a negro there is a public sentiment there which excuses 
and palliates the crime. This is the natural outgrowth of slavery. 
Under the slave refjline a man who killed his neighboi"'s negro was 
liable to the owner for tlie price of the negro, and in some instances, 
if he was a favorite servant, he would demand further satisfaction, 
and kill the slayer of his negro. But it was not regarded as homicide 
to kill a negro in many of the States in the South ; and that estimate 
of a negro's life obtains to a greater or less extent to-day throughout 
the South, which palliates the slaying of a negro. 

There is probably uo State in the Union that has more stringent 
punitive laws than the State of Mississippi, and yet we cannot con- 
vict or punish white men of murder, because of the depraved public 
sentiment and the want of a proper api>reciation of the value of hu- 
man life, the natural outgrowth and concomitant of the institution 
of slavery. Men who have trafficked in the bodies and souls of men, 
of buying and selling God's image, become, as a natural sequence, cal- 
lous to the idea of the sanctity of human life. 

The State of Texas is another State controlled by '*' intelligent, hon- 
est men," and, as the honorable Senator from Georgia would havens 
believe, when they control in the South there is protection for life 
and property. Let us see al)Out Texas. Over six hundred murders 
have been committed since 'Governor Coke, a. demociatic governor, 
succeeded Governor Davis. There is a fearful record in a little over 
a year and a half of nix luiiKhrd murders. In Texas six hundred mur- 
ders are comnutted in a year and a half. This is no statement of "an 
outrage-mill." I will now cite a statement in I'egard to the condition 
of crime in the State of Texas under democratic rule, taken from a 
democratic source. I refer to the Saint Louis (Missouri) Republican, 
a democratic paper of the Bourbon type. It says, in speaking of the 
condition of Texas : 

"Whole comities are under the absolute control of orgauizcfl liamls of desperate 
men, who set the laws of the State at tleflanee auille^'y contiibutions upon the peo- 
ple, at will. 

This is a statement certified to by a democratic editor of one of the 
leadiiig western papers of the condition of Texas. I pro})Ose now to 
call the attention of the lionorable Senator from Georgia to the con- 
dition of his own State. I refer again to the press of his State. It 
is conceded that the i)nblic press is the great formative power of 
public sentiment, and at the same time an index of tlie condition of 
society in the community or section of the country wliere it is located. 
I read from the Daily News, one of the leading democratic pajjera 
ptiblished at Atlanta, Georgia, as follows : 

Against the fate that confronts us what have the southern people? Is it that 
"prudence" which such jtapers as the Louisville Courier-.! oui'nal advocate, but 
which men less gifted than the editor of that pajier call a dastardly submission ? 
No! Our only ho])e is in a stern, resohite resistance, a resistance to the (h^ath, if 
necessary, with arms in our hauils. Let there be "Wliite Ijcatjues" formed in 
every town, vilUiuo, and liaiiilet of the South; and let us orjianiKO for t^lie great 
struggle whicli sec iiis to be incvilalih-. If the October elections whiidi arc to he 
held at theXorth are favorable to tin- radicals, the time will have .arrived for us to 
prepare for the very wor.st. The ladicalism of the republican ii.arty must be met 
by the radi<^alisui of white men. AV'(^ have no war to make auainst the United 
States Government, but against the republican jiarty our hate must be unqueuch- 



38 

able, our war iutermiiiable and niercikss. Fast tlietiuji' away is the day for wordy: 
protests and idle appeals to the niagnaniuiity of tlio repnblicait party. 

By brute force they are endeavoring to force us into acquiescence to their 
hideous programme. We have submittel long enough to indignities, and it is time 
to meet brute force with brute force. Every Sontlieni State should swai-m with 
White Leagues, and we should stand ready to act tlie moment Grant signs the 
civil-i-ights bill. It will not do to wait until radicalism has fettered us to the car 
of social equality before we make an effort to resist it. The signing of the bill 
will be a declaration of war against the southern whites. It is our duty to our- 
selves, it is our duty to our children, it is our duty to the white lace whose prowess 
subdued the wilderness of this continent ; whose civilization tilled it with cities 
and towns aud villages ; whose mind gave it power and grandeur, and whose labor 
imparted to it prosperity, and whose love made peace and haiipiness dwell within 
its homes, to take up the gage of battle the moment it is tlirown down. 

If the white democrats of the North are men, they will not stand idly by and 
see us borne downby noithern radicals and half -barbarous negroes. But no matter 
what they may do, it is time for us to organize. We have been temporizing long- 
enough. Let northern radicals understand that military super^asiou of southern 
elections and the civil-rights bill mean war, tliat war means bloodshed, aud that 
we are tenibly in earnest^ and even they, fanatical as they are, may retrace their 
steps before it is too late. 

And again, I desire to present some soutliern democratic testimony 
as to the existence of White Leagues and tlie murders and massacres 
which have taken place as an otiset to the Southern Associated Press 
denials ot tlie existence and purposes of the organization. From the 
Atlanta News I will read the following extract from one of its edi- 
torials : 

Here is what he says about the condition of the South and tlie pur- 
poses of Wliite Leagues : 

Violence is to be deprecated aiul avoided, if possible : but where these men lia^e 
been killed they have brought about their deaths by their own acts, aud do not 
merit the sympathy of anybody. We shall not imitate the example of some of our 
Congressmen by condemning the killing of the men. 

We are not defending murder ; we are not .justifying assassination. We admit 
that there have been instances in which gross outrages have been perpetrated by 
men who disgraced thek section by their acts. 

At the same time, we recognize the existence of a state of affairs which compels 
a summary procedure. AMiat was liinud the Camilla massacre, which occuiTcd 
in this State in 18C8, was justifiable in any sense of the word. Had every negro 
been killed who took part in the conflict, the whites would have been justified iu 
killing them. So also in Mississipi^i, recently ; so also iu Louisiana. 

Wlien Grant holds up our people to public view as assassins, let us tell the story 
as it exists. There is no denying that men were killed at Coliax and at Cou.shatta. 
There is no denying, too, that Ihcy were killed by the whites: but, deplorable as 
their killing was, they were the xictinis of their own di.shonesty, their own vil- 
lainy, their own incendiarism. 

They have found out in Georgia that tliere is an "irrepressililc con- 
flict," and the leading paper of the State urges tlie ]>eopl(' to form 
leagues aud arm themselves for the inevitable siruggh'. I stated to 
the Senate that tliere was a conspiracy existing in tlie Soutli, the ob- 
ject of which was revolution, rebellion against the Government of the 
United States. I am aware that it was a startling anuouucement ; 
but here is a statement from high authority, a leading newspaper in 
the State of Georgia edited by one of the ablest men of that State, 
in which he calls on tlie ])eople lo ann fheinmircii, to orf/aiiize for the 
sfnifff/h wliieh he Hai/s is iurritablc. "■ War miisf conic. Jl'c iiiiisf utrikefor 
our rUjlds." That is the same spirit that pervaded the South in 1860 
when the secession democracy "tired the southern heart" into a liame 
of rebellion. 

The same is true of the democratic press of the South ; the same 
rash appeals are made to the ]M'o])le to organize for revolution. The 
struggle, they say, "is inevitable." Why, sir, wlieu I see the temper 



39 

and tone of the press of the Sonth, it wonkl seem that history was 
indeed repeating; itself ; that the dial had been turned back a decade 
and that we were really on the eve of another rebellion. 

The same spirit animates the leaders of the secession democracy 
that chai'acterizc^d their efforts in 1861. In justice to the people of 
the South it is proper that I should make a distinction. I am happy 
to be able to say that there are thousands of southern men who do 
not subscribe to the rash follies of the democratic jjarty. There is 
the old whig party, the men wlio still cling to the doctrine advocated 
by Henry Clay. These men were at heart loyal. They opposed the 
efforts of the secession rule-or-ruin democracy to plunge tJie country 
into an internecine war. .They pointed out the fearful results to the 
South, and the sequel ])roved the truth of their asserticns, but they 
are as powerless to-day as in ISol. 

The same rash leaders of the secession democracy who brought 
bankruptcy and utter ruin upon the beautiful south-land ; who 
plunged her into revolution and left her desolate, an utter waste ; 
tilled the land with lamentation and woe ; her industries stricken 
down ; her cities and towns reduced to ashes. The very men who 
brought this destruction upon the South are to-day attempting to 
revive the old secession party. They control the press of the South. 
They propose to again " lire the southern heart ;" they advocate and 
indorse the organization of leagues for murder and assassination. 
" The struggle," in the language of this Georgia editor, " is inevita- 
ble," and we must arm. 

I do not exaggerate the condition of the South when I say that there 
are in the South to-day at least half a million of men organized and 
armed with the most improved weapons, Winchester rifles and needle- 
guns. What does all this mean? Does the Senator from Georgia 
say that in his State there is peace, qniet, and order ; that the people 
are loyal ; that tliey are disposed to counsel peace and quiet ? But I 
will proceed to read : 

By brute force tlwy (the republicaus) are ende.ivoriug to force r.s iuto acquiescenco 
to thcu" hideous prograuiiue. 

What "hideous programme" has the republican party jtroposed? 
What is the programme that is so hideous to the chivaliic editor of 
the Atlanta News? Why, sir, it is the programme of universal lib- 
erty, the doctrine of ecpial protection under American law. That is 
" the head and front of our offending." Because we demand that the 
Ku-Klux assassins who go to the cabin of the poor, defenseless negro 
masked and under the cover of night to scourge and murder him, 
shall be arrested, and, if necessary, to use Federal bayonets; that 
they shall be tried, and, if found guilty, punished by a Federal court. 
That, sir, is " the hideous programme " that lie speaks of. 

Becausfe we demand that an American citizen shall have the pro- 
tection of American law at home as well as abroad ; because we ad 
vocate that doctrine the southern aristocratic democracy propose to 
arm themselves and organize White Leagues for riot a)id murder. 
Why, sir, a fcwyeai's ago a man who had not become a citizen of the 
United States, who had only made a declaration of his intention to he- 
come such, was seized by the Austrian authorities. I refer to Martin 
Koszta. The Austrian authorities attcm]ite(l to take him because of 
some crime alleged to have beeucomnntted against that government. 
One of our glorious, noble tars, standing uji in tlie defense of the 
theory that an American citizen was enlithnl to tlie protection of the 
American ti:ig on the high seas, proposed to pour a broadside into the 
Austrian cral't if Koszta was not (leliverod up inunediately. Tliis action 



40 

of an American naval officer met ^itli a hearty apj>roval from every 
American all over this broad land. And so in the case of Dr. Houard, 
the Virginins prisoners, and ahnudred of instances that have occurred 
in the history of this country. Yet Avhen in 1875 the republican party 
demand of these democratic revolutionists at the South, these White 
Leagues and assassins at the South, that they shall respect the life 
of an American citizen, white or black, this is a "hideous programme," 
an insult, an outrage upon the chivalric Ku-Klux democracy of the 
South too intolerable to be borne. • 

I will not detain the Senate by reading further from tliis paper. 
There are several more very important points in it, but I pass. 

I will refer to one other instance of the peaceful condition of Geor- 
gia. In August last a body of Georgians from Atlanta invaded the 
State of South Carolina, and. by means of murder and other kinds of 
violence controlled the election in the interest of the democratic 
party ; and yet the honorable Senator from Georgia would have us 
xmderstand that the people of Georgia are " law abiding;" that the 
jjeople of Georgia allow every man to vote as he pleases ; that there is 
no intimidation used to control the vote of the negro or any class of 
people. We find a band of men known as the Georgia Tigers in- 
vade an adjoining State, and undertake to control, and do control, the 
election of a whole county in South Carolina, and murder men in the 
attempt. How much this sounds like the old border-rufiian tales 
from Kansas! 

Now I have another matter, and I am sorry the Senator is not 
in his seat. I desire to read the statement of a gentleman who 
is responsible as a ''gentleman and a man" for what he says. I 
am authorized by this gentleman to present this statement to the 
Senate. In the late canvass in Georgia, in the town of Montezuma, 
as the distinguished Senator from Georgia was passing through that 
city, it was arranged that the rail-train should stop and he should 
make a political speech. On this occasion, I am informed by this 
gentleman that the honorable Senator used this language, or words 
of a similar import : " I suppose there is not a white reiinl.lican in 
this county," referring to Macon County ; "if there is one, the good 
people of Macon County should drive him from her soil, and not per- 
mit him to live there." The gentleman who authorized me to make 
that stateiuout is, I am informed, a man of high character. His name 
is Jack Brown; he Avas the playmate, school-mate, and confederate in 
the late war of the honorable Senator. And yet the Senator says 
that in the canvass he made in his State he advocated the right of 
every man to vote as he pleased ; he was opposed to intimidation. 
We are informed that he stood on the stump in his State and advised 
liis fellow-citizens to acts of violence because of differences in politi- 
cal opinion. 

I do not say that the Senator uttered such a sentiment ; I give the 
authority. Hut I do undertake to say tliat if the Senator himself 
never uttered that sentiment, tliat that kind of doctrine, that kind 
of sentiment is lieard on every stump from democratic orators in 
every southern State. 1 have heard it; I liave listened to it myself 
in the State of Mississippi. And yet wo are told there is no intimi- 
dation ! 

By the same authority I am informed that in the town of Americus, 
where 1 l)elieve the distinguished Senator from Georgia lives, at least 
two hundred white men would have voted in the recent election for 
the republican candidate for Congress but for the proscription and os- 
tracism that iirevailed. He says, referring to liis own son-in-law, who 



41 

^tvas employed, as book-keej)er in one of the leading mercantile iinus 
of that city, the firm known as Pickett & King, after the election 
the democrats of that town, and the democratic press demanded of 
this mercantile firm that they shonld discharge this book-keeper, 
simply beoanse ho had voted for his father-in-law, the republican 
candidate for Congress. 

The fact is, as stated by this gentleman, that in the town where the 
honorable Senator lives, because a man liappens to vote for one of his 
kindred if he is a republican, the democratic press of tlie town and 
the whole democratic party of the town, insist that liis employers 
shall discharge him. 

The Senator, in speaking of tlie jieaceful condition of affairs in 
Georgia, referred to the school-houses that dotted it. He said that 
all over the hills and vales of the State of Georgia were to be found 
school-houses where the colored people were educated, which was 
another evidence of the good feeling between the races; and he cited 
an instance of tlie benevolence of tlie southern peojde. He called 
the attention of tlie Senate to cme benevolent man who had donated 
$100,000 to endow certain eleemo)synary institutions for the colored 
people. Upon examination I find that this man's name was Lamar, 
Mr. G. B. Lamar, that he was the father of the notorious "Charley 
Lamar," of the " Wanderer" notoriety,who brought from Africa a cargo 
of slaves a few years before the war. It tiu'us out that this benevo- 
lent individual, who had been a slave-trader all his life, amassed his 
fortune in buying and selling- slaves, gave $50,000 to Savannah to 
found an asylum for indigent negroes, and the same amount for 
Augusta; and it further appears that this man who donated so lib- 
erally to this commendable purpose, was a loyal man during the war, 
and has recently received several hundred thousand dollars from the 
United States Treasury for losses incurred during the war. He has 
founded an asylum for the colored people, and the honorable Senator 
would have us believe that such benevolence Avas characteristic of 
the feeling that exists among our democratic fi'iemls at the South 
toward the negroes in relation to their education. I have some facts 
on that question ; but I will not detain the Senate by reading them, 
but I beg leave to incorporate them in my speech. 

I desii'e to refer the Senate to the condition of education in the 
Southern States, and I take this occasion to say that in almost every 
instance (and I know whereof I atfirm, because I have had the honor 
to be connected with the educational interests of the South) when 
those States were reconstructed there was no such thing as an efficient 
school system in the South, and in many Southern States there was 
no such thing known. These States had, with scarcely an exception, 
no school laws, and where they had, tliey were practically inopera- 
tive ; but immediately after reconstruction, in those States which 
were u nder republi can admini atra ti on , school-h ouses were built, educa- 
tional faciliti{>s were provided for the blacks and whites alike. 

When the State of Mississippi was reconstructed, there was not a 
single free school in the State. Under republican administration, iu 
three years over fwo thousand school-houses were built and over three 
thousand schools were organized. Nearly one hundred thousand chil- 
dren were receiving tuition in the schools under the jiatronage of a 
republican administration. The same was true of Tennessee in 1868; 
but when the power i)assed from the republican party into the hands 
of the democracy, one of their first acts was to close the schools. The 
schools were broken up, and not until quite recently have the people 
of Tennessee paid any attention to the revival of their school system. 



42 

This Avas true also of Georgia. Uuder ropiiblicau rule seliouls were 
established. As soon as the 8tate passed into the hands of the dem- 
ocrats the schools were ]iractically abolished ; and they have to-day 
a mere nominal school system. I undertake to say, that the difterent 
benevolent and educational associatious in the North have contributed 
more money to support the education of the colored children and the 
Avhite children in the State of Georgia, than the democratic party 
have ever contributed during the whole history of that State. The 
same is true of Texas. The amount of the Peabody fund distributed 
in the South since the war is $)3,.500,000. The contributions for educa- 
tional i>urposes at the South by the American Missionary Association 
of the North since the war have amounted to .|1,663,()()0. Tlie Gene- 
ral Government expended, through the Freedmen's Bureau, nearly 
.$6,000,000 for educational j)urposes in the S(uith. In the six months 
ending June oO, 1869, northern or foreign b(;nevolence had conti'ib- 
uted $365,000 for the education of southern youth, white and colored. 
During the last ten years the same benevolence has contributed, aside 
from the Peabody gift, over $8,000,000 for southern education ; and 
nearly all these contributions have come from republican sources. 

In the State of Mississippi, when the democratic party began to feel 
that they were coming again into power and the Ku-Klux organiza- 
tions were being formed, instead, as the honorable Senator would have 
us believe that the southern people were anxious to educate the negro 
and the masses of the people, the Ku-Klux democracy burned our 
school-houses. Over hfty school-houses, including church buildings 
used for schools by the negroes, were burned in Mississippi l)y these 
lawless bauds ; and it is the same class of men who are foremost iu 
the White League movement to-day. 

I append a statement of the condition and ]>rogress of free schools 
in the Soutli, made uj) from ortlcial sources, which will fully substan- 
tiate my remarks upon this subject: 

ARKANSAS. 

First piildic .scliool-lionsp in the State was hnilt l)y tlit^'teednieu in 1804. No 
free jmblic siliools for white oi' coloteil cbildicu uiitil after tlio wai'. — Report 
Siiperinfendciit Freedmen's Sdwols Arkansas, 1864. 

On liir aihnif<sioii to the Uniou, iu 1836, Arkansas received n23.0'!0 acres of land 
fl-oni the (ieiicval ( ioverniiient to aid free scliools ; at. th<' same time two townships 
to establisli a seminar;,- of learning; afterward seventy-i wd siM-tions of saline lamls 
in ai<l of education. For more than thirtv years no fi<c scIukiIs wei'c estaldished. 
The tirst ett'ective .system was estahlishcd by reimliliran administration iu 1868. 
Iu 1870 there were in the State l,-2sii scIiodMkiuscs ir.'ctcd since the war ; there 
were 2,537 schools iu ojieration. Iu ls7^; then- wvw 1,2'.)2 s<'li(M)l-hon80s, whose value 
exceeded $'J.Vi,(IOO. In 1871 there wcir. about 70,0()() pn])i!s in the schools. These 
results wcic achieved dnrint; six yrars of i'e]iublican I'uU' and under adverse cir- 
cuuistauces. — Reports iSvperintciidi'nt I'ublic liistruclion Ark-ansus, 1868 to 1873. 

GEORGIA. 

TJefore the war fJeovuia had no efTective fi'ee-school system. Duriuo' the short 
period of rci)ublican a liuiuistration after the war 816 free public schools were es- 
tablished, in wbicli were tiui^ht about 40,000 i)upils. — Report of J. R. Lciois, State 
Superinlciidinil nf ilihicdlioii. 

As soon as the (biu<Mi;it:', aaincd pulitii-al contr(d the public Scho(ds bt^gau to 
languish, aiul were ;;ciH'ially ilisi(mtiMU<'d throughout tlie Stale iti I8'i2, tlie school 
fund having been di\crted from its projicr purpose. — Report Htdte Snperiiitendent 
Fublic Instruction. 

In one y(>ar 10 sohool-housos and 1 church used for school purposes were burned by 
■white num in Georgia. This was the second year alter the war. — Report Inspector 
of Schools Freedmen's Bureau, Juhj, 18G7. 

In 1867 a northeiu benevolent society sustained two schools for poor whites, num- 
bering 255i)upils, at Atlanta. — Report Inspector of Scliools Freedmen's Bureau, 18G8. 

LOUISIANA. 

Outside of Kew Oileans thei'e was no systcTu of free schools before the war. In 
1873, 101 .school-houses were built, 8G4 schools in operation, 1,474 teachers oiu- 



43 

ployed, and 57,433 pupils taught. Tlie lands appropriated by Congress to aid ptiti- 
lic schools had been so unwisely managed as to render little or no aid prior to 
1870. — Reports Supermtendeiit Public Indntction Louisiana, 1870-'73. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

In 1870, 110 school-houses wei-e built, 630 free puldio schools maintained, 734 
teachers employed, and 23,441 pupils taught. — Report of Superintendent Public 
Instruction State of South Carolina, lrf70-'71. 

TENNESSEE. 

Tennessee had no eflScient fiee-school system until 1867. In twenty-two months 
under republican supervision 3,903 schools had been started ; 4,614 teachers em- 
ployed, 185,845 pujjils taught ; during the same time 629 school-houses have been 
erected, of which 61 were " buint or destroyed" during the same x^eriod. — Report 
Superintendent Public Instruction Tennessee, October, 18G9. ' 

As soon as the State ])assed under democratic control the school law was repealed, 
and the systt lu in vogue before the war re-established. The first report after this 
change showed that but twenty-three counties out of ninety-four levied any tux for 
■school i)urposes. aSTuniljer of schools reported 478; the enumeration of scholastic 
population was 165,067, against 418,729 in 1869. — Report Superintendent Public In- 
struction Tennessee, 1872. 

Granger County, Tennessee, in 1869. had 46 white and 8 colored schools, with 4,125 
white pupils and 450 coloied. In 1872 the superintendent reports "3 schools; 
scholastic population about 3,200 ; no school tax voted." — Comparison of above re- 
ports. 

Dyer County, in 1869, had 41 schools, 43 teachers, 1,389 pupils ; in 1871 it had no 
public schools, and the county refused to vote a school tax. — Goinparison of abov& 
reports. 

TEXAS. 

Free-school system established in 1871, and under its operation 129,542 liupils 
had been gathered in schools before September of that year. In May, 1872, 1,921 
.schools had been organized, 2,'-!9!i toacliers emidiiycd. and 84,007 pujiils taught. In 
1873 the school law was so amemled as to almost destroy the ofiicicncy of the sys- 
tem. Thns in September, 1871, there were 587 schools, with 28,t00 ]iii])ils. In SieiJ- 
tember, 1873. tluic were 85 schools, with 2,913 pupils; while theiniiiibcrof teachers 
employed had drcieiised from 710 in 1871 to 98 in 1873. In 1871 Tex;is h;id but one 
or two public school-houses. About 5,000,000 acres of land were set aiiart for ed- 
ucatioiKil puri loses. In 1858 a law was passed ;i]iproiiriaiingthc ])!'oceedsof the sale 
of all pul>lic hinds to the educational fund: but during tln' ivliillioii this revenue, 
amounting to a236,000, was divi'rted fiom its purjiose to assist in carrying on the wai' 
against the Government. Of the permiuunt schoool fund $l,2s5,327 was diverted 
from its jjurposo and used in the sanu; m:Miiier. Seven hundred and seventy-six 
thousand seven hundred dollars of I'nited States indemnity bonds belonging to tlia 
school fund were also disposed of in like manner. — See Official Reports Sujicrintei^ 
dent of Public Instruction Texas for 1871, 1872, 1873. 

THE SOUTH. 

Amount of Peabodyfund, |3,500,000. — Appleton's Cyclopedia, 1369. 

Contributions to eclucational work in the South by the American Missionary A.^- 
•sociiition .$1,663,00U in ten years; expended for education by the General Govern- 
ment through the I'reedmen's Bureau about 16,000,000. — Meport Commissioner of 
Education, 1871, page 15, note. 

In six months, ending June 30, 1869, northein and foreign benevolence had can- 
tributed 1365.000 for the education of southein youth, w^hite and colored. — Report 
Inspector of Schools Frr.ediiieiis Bureau, 1869. 

During the last tin ycai s the smne bcnevcdcnce has contributed, aside from Pea- 
body's gift, over t-H.i)iiii. 000 Idr sdiitlici-n education. — Reports of American Mission- 
ary Association, Frcciluicn's A id Societies and Church Missionary Poards. 

Now, sir, suppose we admit, as tlio Senator from Georgia claims^ 
that the people of his section are wronged, maligned, subjeeted to 
misgoveruuient, " a foot-ball for political adventurers." That there 
has been some bad government in the South no one denies. There i.s 
no question but that there has been in quite too many instances of 
questionable management of the public funds ; but I undcrf akt- to say, 
that in almost every case where the public treasuries of the Southern 
States have been rol)bed or plundered, it has been done to a greater 
or less extent, by democrats or their agents. In almost every in- 
stance some democrat has had an interest in the scliemcs of robbery 
and extravagance. There is hardly an t>-Nception. 



44 

The democratic party seek to divert attention from the real issne in 
the South, by parading what they call " misrule," "radical thieving," 
"negro domination "in the South as a palliation for outrages and crime. 
They allege that the people are being plundered by " strangers," 
"adventurers," and pluuderei's, as the Senator from Georgia denomi- 
nates the northern immigrants and Federal officers who have settled 
iu the South since the war. And for this reason the southern de- 
mocracy are justiiied in organizing themselves into secret bands for 
the purjjose of murder, assassination, and revolution ; justiiied in at- 
tempting in defiance of law to overturn existing State and municipal 
governments. I will repeat, that if you take the history of the South 
since reconstruction, and there is scarcely an exce]>tion to the rule, 
where a large State debt has been imposed, and excessive taxes levied, 
the democracy are to a greater or less extent responsible. Those 
who have been most interested in procuring legislation granting sub- 
sidies to one franchise and another, and who have been the principal 
beneficiaries of these schemes, are democrats, who are howling to-day 
about robbery and corruption in the South. I make the statement 
without fear of successful controversy, that at least one-half of the 
indebtedness of the Southern States has been brought upon them in 
granting subsidies to railroad corporations, and no republican, white 
or colored, have received any part of the spoils. 

For an illustration take the city of Charleston. I am informed by 
reliable authority that the x^eople of that city, with a view to revive 
commerce and to attract capital, voted large sums of money as an in- 
ducement for capitalists to open railway communication. What is 
true of that city is true of Savannah, and true of nearly every other 
southern city. 

In the campaign of 1872, in every deraoci'atic newspaper were exhib- 
ited tables comparing the condition of the Southern States before the 
war under democratic rule with republican rule since reconstruction. 
They attempted to make it appear that the republicans were abso- 
lutely bankrupting those States. 

The State of Louisiana, which has been held up as a special victim 
of radical misrule, in about eighteen months under democratic rule, 
when not a carpet-bagger or negro had anything to do with State 
affairs, but under a democratic administration was plunged in debt 
nearly l|18,000,000 ; and of the debt that hangs over Louisiana to-day, 
which the democracy parade so much before tlie, American people as 
an evidence of the outrage perpetrated upon the poor people of the 
South, more than one-half her indebtedness was contracted in eight- 
een months under democratic rule. These are facts that cannot bo 
controverted. Lest this may be doubted, I submit a tabular state- 
ment of each item of expenditure, which, however, I Avill not detain 
the Senate to read. * * * * 

KECATirrLATIOX. 

ATOOnnt of appropiiations in 1S65 cl. 177, 546 17 

Amount of apiiropiiatious iu 1366 o, ;iOO, 3!)9 75 

Amonut of appropriations iu 1867 10, (iSl, 608 90 

Total 17,129.554 82 

Bonded debt before tbe war 3, 990, 000 00 

Outstanding indebtedness 1805 362, 855 76 

Total 21, 482, 410 58 

Less amount taxes ccdlectedin 1366 and 1S07 3,379,682 00 

Amount of State debt transmitted to republican administration 18, 102, 728 58 



45 

The Logislatnre that made the above appropriatiou was elected iu 
1865, and was almost uuanimonsly democratic, composed mostly of 
such old leading democrats as J. M. Lapeyre, D. F. Kenner, A. Voor- 
hies, J. B. Eustis, W. B. Eagan, and John McEnery. Wo have seen 
at the extra session of December, 1865, they appropriated !|1, 177,546.17 ; 
iu 1866, Cti5,300,399.75 ; iu 1867, $10,651,608.90; making a total of 
$17,129,554.82 appropriated by a single Legislature almost unani- 
mously democra.tic. 

Now permit me to present a few facts relating to the political con- 
dition of Louisiana before the war. It is represented that all was 
peaceaMe when honesty and intelligence controlled. Our democratic 
friends hold up the present demoralized condition of the State as the 
result of oppressive legislation and misgovernment under reijubhcau 
rule since the war. 

Gayarre, the historian, referring to the condition of affairs in Louisi- 
ana iu 1856, says : that Governor Herbert, in his valedictory message, 
referred with deep mortification to the scenes of intimidation, vio- 
lence, and bloodshed which had marked the late general elections iu 
New Orleans. 

He sa id that the repetition of su ch outrages would tarnish our national 
character and sink us to the level of the anarchical governments of 
Spanish America; that before the occurrence of those "great public 
crimes," the hideous deformity of which he could not describe and 
which were committed with impunity iu midday light and iu the 
Ijreseuce of hundreds of persons, no one could have admitted even the 
jiossibility that a blood-thirsty mob could have contemplated to over- 
awe any portion of the people of this State in the exercise of their 
most valuable rights ; " but tliat what would then have been denied, 
even as a possibility, is now a historical fact." 

Referring to the internal condition of the State, Governor AYickliffe 
said: 

Bountifnl as nature has been to Louisiana, the skill of the engineer is still essen- 
tial to her full development. With twenty-live millions of acres of fertile lauds, 
hardly a tenth is in cultivation ; with a sea-coast a third in length of the State, wo 
have a tonnage almost in its infancy. With capacity to produce all the cotton 
needed for the Biitish Empire and all the sugar required for this great confedera- 
tion, we are as yet but laggards in their growth. With thousiinds of miles of iuter- 
aal navigation, our productions frequently can find uo market, and North am! South 
Louisiana are strangers to each other. Toward the cultivation of tliesi- inillious of 
acres, toward the improvement of tln-se miles of navigation, toward ((-uuntiiig to- 
getherthese sections, discreet and tiimly legislation cau domiuli. Asyetuothing. 
absolutely nothing, has been accoiuplisl'ied. A fund for iiitirnal iniprovcmeut has 
exi.sted for years. Large amounts of it have been expended. Yet it would be dif- 
ficult for even a curious inquirer to discover any benefit that has resulted from it. 

These were sad truths from the lips of the chief magistrate. He 
further said : 

It is passing strange that, in a popular government, without privileged classes, 
without stipendiaries ou the bounty of the State, mismanagement and recklessuesb 
should be tolerated. 

Although the presidential election which had secured the success 
of the democratic party, represented by James Buchanan, to which 
Governor Wickliffe also refers, had been considered as determining 
whether the Southern States should continue or not to remain in the 
Union, and although it had been for this reason the most important 
which had been held since the foundation of the Federal Govern- 
ment, yet out of 11,817 votes registered in the city of New Orleans 
only 8,333 were cast, showing apparently at least an inexplicable 



46 

4ip;itliy on the part of 3,484 citiz ms. The governor commented ou 
this regrettable fact in the follo^viag language : 

It demonstrates that some extraordinary cause was at work to prevent a large 
proportion of lawful voters from enjoying tlie sacred fi-ancbise of the Constitu- 
tion. It is well known that at the two last general elections many <if the streets 
■and approaches to the polls were ciiiiii>li'lfjy in tlie hands of orj^aiiized ruffians, 
who coianiitted acts of violence on niultitiuii's of our naturalized fellow-citizens 
who dared venture to exercise the riglit of Milfrage. 

Thus nearly one-third of the registered voters of Xew Orleans have been deterred 
-from exeicising their highest and most sacred iirerogative. The expression of 
such elections is an oi)en and palpable fraud ou the people, and I recommend you 
*oj).dopt such m(asiir<'s as shall etiectually juevent the true wiU of the majority 
irora being totally silenced. 

The evil pointed out by the governor was of the utmost magnitude, 
but there was one still more dangerous than any which resulted from 
open \iolence. It was that corruption which enabled foreigners just 
landing ou our shores to vote, and which imt two or three thousand 
illegal voters at the disposal of whatever party had the means of 
liuying them. This was the main cause, which, by producing intense 
disgust, went much further than fear of assassination to prevent hon- 
est citizens from resorting to the ballot-box. They knew all our elec- 
tions to have become so hopelessly fraiululent that it was disgraceful 
to participate in them, and had retired from the political arena in 
«ul!en dispair. 

Again permit me to refer to the State of Mississippi, which I have 
the honor in part to represent. The State of Mississippi, under dem- 
ocratic rule, in the days when "honesty and intelligence" (in the 
language of the Senator from Georgia) ruled and controlled that 
country — in about nine yeais of democratic rule, the democratic party 
absolutely squandered and robbed that State of nearly $20,000,000 ; 
and during a period of thirty-five years of democratic rule in Mis- 
sissippi they absolutely plundered and squandered $40,000,000! To 
prove this, I cite my honorable colleague [Mr. Alcorn] who, when 
a candidate for governor in 1869, in an able speech, arraigned the dem- 
ocratic party, (tlie leaders of which are the very men who are to-day 
furnishing tlie pabulum for democratic newspapers North in the crj* 
of " thief," " plunderer," and like epithets,) proved and demonstrated — 
and there was not a, democrat in Mississi])pi who could controvert 
his statement — thtit the democratic party had stolen out of the trust 
funds and K(|uan(le:ed the public funds of that State to the amount 
of l|40,0()0,UU0. And because in the State of South Carolina, under 
negro rule, as it is called, the State has contracted a del)t of a few 
millions of d(dlars, the most unheard of and terrible misrule in the 
history of this government is complained of! 

Mr. President, I will cite an authority wliich will not be ques- 
tioned by our detnoeratic friends as to the condition (d' Mississiii]>i 
in 1838, in the palmy days of democratic rule in that State. iNo negro 
^lomination or radical rule is here portrayed, luit pure, unadulter- 
ated denu)cratic administration. Governor McNntt, in liis message 
to the Legislature, says : "He could not ascertain the triu' situation of 
the State treasurer's books. Tlie total receipts into tlici treasury 
Irom the 7th of December, 1837, to 31st of December, 1838, amounted 
to !|196,9l9.1)(i, and the disbmsements $3,'30,(;44.19, showing an excess 
of expenditures over receii)ts of upward of $1.^,000." And referring 
to a democratic auditor of juibiic accounts, Jobn 11. jNIalory, he says : 

Itappears tliat he is a defaulter to the amount of fr)4.0"P.9G. The ti'ust imposed 
has been sadly abused, and he has been enabled thus long to conceal his defalca- 
tion. 



47 

Agaiu, sliowing tlie condition of the administration of justice at that 
time, on page 31, senate journal, we tiud the governor making use of 
the following: 

Sheriffs and coroners have resigned aliont tlie commencement of tlie court for the 
evident purpose of preventuig tlie term being held, and thus defeating the regular 
administration of the laws. 

Further evidence of disorganization follows on page 3'2 of said 
journal : 

I am advised that the final records of the courts are rarely made up pursuant to 
law. It is believed that they are imperfect in almost every office of the. State. 
When a new clerk comes iut*) 'office he linds the fees for such service collected and 
the work undime. He refuses, therefore, to bring u\t the uufluished business of 
the office, and the records are suifered to remain in their imperfect state. 

At page 36 attention is called to the "judicial legislation" of the. 
liigh court, superior court of chancery, and several circuit courts. 
The complaint is that " in many cases parties are j)rohibited from 
being heard by counsel in open court, but are required to submit 
written arguments and briefs," precluding a reply to the arguments 
^and authorities adduced by the opposite party, and placing it "in the 
power of the judge to overlook the adjudications cited, to the mani- 
fest injury of suitors." 

Allusion is also made to the probate courts : 

Too much power is given tfl the judge in vacation, and in numerous cases the 
securities of extscutors, administrators, and guariliaus are utterly insolvent when 
taken. 

At page 38 of the senate journal we find the following : 

The long list of dcfaulteis given in the auditor's report, and the innuensc amount 
of arrearages icinahiiiiii uniiaid, show that sumething is wrong iu the present sys- 
tem. It is outrageous tluit taxes should be wrung from the hard earnings of the 
jieople and siiuaudercd by the othcers the^ have chosen to collect them. 

Page 39, another extract from the message is as follows : 

Thirty-three tax collectors are in default the sum of |90,tU7.46 for taxes accruing 
prior to the year 1838 ; suits have been ordered against them on their bonds. Twen- 
ty-six tax collectors are in default in the sum of $'26,1)8().2T for taxes assessed in the 
year 1838. It is believed that these sums fall far sliort of the actual defalcations, 
immense suraS are yearly collected which are not returned on ilu- roll of the assess- 
ors, and under the existing laws it is impracticable to bring officers thus in de- 
fault to accovint. 

The following extracts from the message of Governor McNutt, (sen- 
ate journal of 1H42, page 1.5,) reveal a sad state of public affairs, and 
show conclusively that no improvement had taken place in the ad- 
ministration of the government during his four years' of service : 

The duties of niauy of our officers are for long periods of time piM-formed by 
deputies and clerks. If they are competent to discharge such duties, they deserve 
tlie salarif s drawn by their principals; if tmdoserving, they are unht to be in- 
trusted with the management of such important offices. 

Relative to 'the auditor, treasurer, and secretary of state, he says : 

They frequently absent themselves for long periods of time without even noti- 
fying the executive of their intentions. During their absence the business of their 
offices is left in the charge of clerks who neither give bonds nor take the oath of 
office. Under such circumstances the public business is often neglected and the 
funds of the State endangered. 

It is further stated (page 16) that thousands of dollars are annually 
lost to the State by delays and failures in tin; prosecution of suits 
by the district attorutjys against def;i niters. A suit had been pending 
on the bond of a defai'ilting auditor (who owed the State upward of 
.fioO.OOO) three years ; the State emi)l(>yed assistant counsel, but no 
judgment was obtained. In the mean time the securities of the de- 
faulter had become insolvent, and the whole claim good for nothing. 



48 

In another place (page 14) we find that assessors and collectors re- 
sign and no tax-rolls are i-eturned, &c. 

Again — let me cite you another case. The good old Commonwealth 
of Virginia, which has never been misgoverned by carpet-bagger,?, 
radicals, and negroes, that State to-day, so far as its financial condi- 
tion is concerned, has more than doable the debt of any Southern 
State under a republican administration. Her indebtedness is over 
$45,000,000 ; and yet an attempt has been made to convince the 
Amierican peoi)le that the republican party of the South have been 
plunging those States into an indebtedness and bankruptcy without 
parallel and beyond precedent. But in Virginia they see no bank- 
ruptcy, uo misrule. It makes a great difference whether a democrat 
steals or a republican, and of the two I am inclined to think that a 
republican thief is the more culpable. 

Here are the debts of the Southern States as given in Poor's Man- 
ual of Eailroads for the year 1874-75, the latest authority on the sub- 
ject : 

Alabama Ill, 2.'i8, 83G 07 

Arkansas 10, 885, 000 00 

Georgia 1 4 , 87 1, 084 00 

Kentucky 2, 720, 710 OO 

Louisiana 22, 308, 800 00 

Maryland 10, 741, 210 60 

Mississipiti X o debt stated 

North Carolina 29,547,045 OO 

South Carolina 20, 650, 235 00 

Tennessee 20,966,382 19 

Texas 3,715,978 88 

Virginia 45, 718, 112 23 

Mr. President, I will now cite a case or two of the management of 
the municipal affairs of some of our southern cities. Tlie city of 
Louisville, Kentucky. That city has five times the indebtedness of 
the State of Mississippi, and it has always been under democratic 
control. Take the city of New Orleans. That city has never been 
tinder the control of republicans, and the indebtedness of that city 
alone, I am informed, is greater than the whole indebtedness of the 
State of Louisiana. 

So nmch for the honest, economical management of the democracy 
in the control of the finances of the South. I know of my own per- 
sonal knowledge in the State of Mississippi, that in almost every case 
where there has been a job, where colored officials have been im- 
posed upon, the men who have profited by these schemes and appro- 
priations of the public funds and pUmderings, if you please, have 
l)een democrats, who are to-day leaders in that party. The men 
who have thus enriched themselves are the men who arc leading the 
white-leaguers in their bloody work in Mississippi and in other por- 
tions of the South. I do not know of a single nortifern man or a 
single southern man who has been connected with the republican 
party, and is in good standing with the party to-day who has made a 
dollar that was not legitimately aiul honestly made ; but I do know 
that various attempts have been made by democrats of that State 
to secure legislation in favor of various kinds of schemes by which 
they might be benefited. Why, sir, the city of Vicksburgh is in- 
debted to-day several hundred thousand dollars in bonds issued for 
internal improvements and railroads, and democrats, white-leaguers, 
have been the principal beneficiaries of these city grants ; and yet 
the indebtedness of tlie city of Vicksburgh and the county is paraded 
by the Associated Press and the denu)cracy of this country as a justi- 
fication for violently driving their sheriff from office and turning out 



49 

of office the men that tlie people have elected, and are even setup as 
a complete defense for nmrder and assassination. Much of the 
clamor about taxation in the South is greatly overdrawn. I present 
to the Senate the following tabulated statements, compiled from the 
last census, which I have obtained from an able article published in 
the New York Nation dated March 28, 1872. Although figures show 
taxation to be high in the South, yet it is certainly not so alarmingly 
out of ratio with other communities as to justify the lawlessness that 
exists. It appears even that certain Northern States are taxed higher 
than any Southern State. 

Rate of taxation per thousand dollars. 
l.mvada : «26 34 

2. Louisiana ^^ °% 

3. Arkansas :[° ^^ 

4. Mississippi ^' .^ 

5. Maine 1^ ^o 

6. Nebraslca " °:? 

7. Alabama " ]l 

8. Kansas - |^ ^^ 

9. South Carolina \7, tii 

10. New Hampshire :J~ °« 

11. Iowa ]~ l* 

12. California {f fi 

13. Massachusetts j j °° 

14. Minnesota IJ ^l 

15. Oregon }} ~^ 

16. Virginia ]] ^^ 

17. Florida jl f 

18. Missouri |" °° 

19. Ohio 1" »^ 

20. Maryland 1" ■^ 

21. Illinois 1" i^ 

22. Georiiia ;; ' 2 

23. Kentucky " 4S 

24. Vermont... j* "' 

25. West Virjiiiiia ^ "^ 

2(5. North Carolina ^ "* 

27. Indiana ■ ° pi 

28. New Jersey ' ?° 

20. Connectici* I ^^ 

30. "Wisconsin ' ^ 

31. MlchiK.in I ^^ 

32. New York 1 ■" 

33. Rhode Island I ■^^ 

34. Texas - I i" 

35. Tennessee JJ '^ 

30. Pennsylvania *" ?* 

37. Delaware * -^ 

Bate of taxation per head. 

1. Nevada " 30 

2. Massachusetts :}' ^)f 

3. California ]'^ -'^ 

4. Connecticut \\ ^ 

5. New York. , JJ 07 

6. New Hampshire ■*" ~~ 

7. Rhode Ishmd ^ ^° 

8. Loiii.siaua ^ ak 

9. Ohio « «^ 

10. Illinois ^ ^^ 

11. Maine ° ^^ 

12. Maryland ° ^■' 

13. Nebraska ° i"^ 

14. New Jersey ° i,^ 

15. Mi-ssouri ° "° 

16. Iowa ' ^?. 

17. Kansas ' fi 

18. Pennsylvania ^ ;:" 

19. Vermont ** *° 

4Q 



50 

20. Indiana 6 42- 

21. Oiejron 6 39 

22. Minnesota 6 02 

23. Arkansas 5 9t 

24. Wisconsin 5 10 

25. Michigan 4 57 

26. Mississippi 4 51 

27. Kintiukv 4 34 

28. South ( iirolina 3 92 

29. West Virginia 3 89 

30. Virginia 3 76 

31. Delaware 3 34 

32. Alabama 2 99 

33. Tennessee 2 69 

34. Florida 2 64 

35. Georgia 2 21 

36. North Carolina 2 20 

37. Texas 1 38 

One thing f urtlier about taxation in my own State. We see a great 
deal in the way of testimony before congressional conunittees and 
in other ways about the taxation on real estate having increased in 
Mississippi from one mill to twelve or fourteen mills, the present State 
tax. Sir, this is strictly true. Taxation in Mississippi on real estate 
has been increased tenfold, I do not doubt, and I will tell you how 
and why. Before the war, when that Stato was absolutely controlled 
by an oligarchy of twenty-live thousand (Icinocratic land-owners, they 
adopted a revenue system that i)laceil all the burdens of government 
upon the industry and enterprise of the country, while property, 
wealth, was almost completely exempted. Under that system the tax 
uijou real estate was limited by law at -pj of 1 per cent, and the land 
owuer lixed his own valuation upon his land. Lands whose actual 
valuation was in some instances fifty d(dlars per acre were assessed 
at fifty cents per acre. Why, sir, under that system of taxation a 

oor, tree negro barber, whose property consisted of a razor, shaving- 
brush, and comb, paid more revenue to the State government than a 

emocratic planter worth $10, QUO in negroes and lands. As an ex- 
hibit of the equitable mode of taxation in the palmy days of demo- 
cratic rule in Mississippi, I read from the provisions of the revenue 
I iws of Mississippi as they existed prior to reconstruction : 

Auctioneers, 2 per cent, on gross sales ; stocks, 3 mills on the dollar ; lianks, |500 ; 
brokers, 3 mills on their gross sales; mechanics, (including milliners,) J of 1 per 
cent; on sales of merchandise, 3 mills; on all trMiisieiit sales, i'x<e])t mules and. 
horses, 2 per cent, ou gross sales ; livery and sales stalilts, -j pir cent, on gross re- 
ceipts of regular business, and on .sales 3 mills : tt^legrapli coniiianiis, '2 jut rout, on 
gross receipts of each otiiee ; each billiard table, $100; exhibilions, .•j^-j,") per day; 
confectionery and barber shops, .$25; expresss couii)anies, ??l,i)ilO eacli ; jdeasure 
cai-riages, clocks, watches, gold or silver coin, gold or silver plate ;»bove the v;ilue 
of fifty dollars, and pianos, 5 mills; gross receipts of all ferries, bridges, turnpikes, 
or otiu'r places wliere a fee is oollecti'cl from tlu' jiasser, 5 mills ; on the v;ilue of all 
solvent credits, J of 1 per cent.; cotton grown prioi- to isdil, .$1 jnr bale ; cotton 
grownafti ■rb-lid, 50 cents |)ei-bale; all cattle over twenty in nunilier, ."i ecu ts]ier head ; 
all saddle and earriagi^ liorses, diauiouds and jewchy, 1 |ier cent, of their valiu' ; 
household fiu iiiturc over |l,Ot)(), 1 ^per cent; breweiie.s, flOO ; distillei ies, .fllKI, and 
$2 per gallon uiionthe cap:uity ot each still; druggists, upon sales of jiaints, oils, 
and glass, 3 mills, and ujion all other sales 1 percent.; on all horses and nuilea 
brought into the State for siih', SI; inns, taverns, hotels, or boarding-houses, 1 per 
cent. ; on siiles of licpiors and wines over one gallon, 5 per cent; on gioss (Minings 
of physicians, lawyers, ami dentists, 1 per cent,; eating-house or restaur:int. i^.'iO; 
on manufacturers, 20 cents on each i|]00 in value of their several productions; 
photographers, |50 ; race-tracks, |100; each raft of logs, 10 cents for each tier 
of six logs; all .salaries, 5 mills; theatres, $10 per day; on any show or per- 
formance, where tMinipensation is charged, (except for benevcdent or charitable 
objects,) 110; each i)e(ldler, .*j(lO, except where he exclusively sells the products of 
this State, then 3 mills upon gioss sales; insurance ageneies, ;"> mills upon gross 
receipts; each hack, cab, carriage, or omnibus used for transporting passengers^ 



51 

85 per head on liorses drawing same ; drays or wagons used for transporting freight, 
it drawn by one horse, $5, if drawn by two bors.-s, 5^10; on eacli wharf-boat, ijlO; 
for every steamboat or tlat-boat which may land at said whart-boat, $1 ; on gross 
sales of trade boats, 5 mills; on water-ratt engaged ni the g"!* "y^f/«t. *i'*;J^«- 
steamboats, $250 ; all other boats, over sixty and under oiu^ hundred tons, iiO ; over 
fortf tons and under sixty, I'JO ; all under twenty tons, .*1U ; every stallion or jack 
the price which may be charged for the seas.,n ; ten-pm alley |50, on every hcense 
Piai ted-by any county, city, or town having a population of two tlnmsand, i»500; 
ff one thousand'and unJler two thousand, $-200; in all other places, iflOO; news de- 
pots, m-, playing-cards. 50 cents; on gross amount of ])rizes, Slier f "t ; on each 
juggler, niagiciau" or slcght-of-hand performer ^U)(); poll tax, fi; dogs, 40 eents , 
4 percent, per mile on all trayelers over r;uhoads ; on tc-es ot otfacers, 3 nnlls ; i ot 
'percent, on all moneys loaned; .ni all physicians who advertise their special 
cures 125 per month; vendors of ice-cream upon the street, |2o per month, in ad- 
vance: on all bequests and inheritances, 1 percent; each pistol, liaying one or more 
barrels, $2; single barrel, |1 ; shot-gun, rifle, or army guns 50 cents ; bowie-knUe, 
sword-cane, or clirk, |2 ; on all rents, 3 mills. 

All subjects of taxation above enumerated were liable to taxation 
by the counties, in addition to that of tbe Stale, and collected in the 
same manner. Tbe taxation on property ^va8 limited, as I have before 
stated, to tIj of 1 per cent. ,.*••+,„+ 

It is one of tbe cliief glories of republican reconstruction in that 
State that it has wiped out this unequitable system of taxatiou and 
placed the burdens of Government where they belong— on wealth 
and not on industry. . j. ^i ^■^ 

I mio-ht startle tbe Senate by some illustrations of the practical 
workings of this system as the records show them, but 1 will not 
dwell on results which are self-evident. The bad faith of the demo- 
cratic press of the C(uintry in concealing materjal facts and parading 
alleged increase of taxation in Mississippi, on real estate, as an evi- 
dence of corrupt administration is only one of the numerous methods 
which they have acbipted to impose ui»on the credulity of the north- 
ern people. The increase of taxatiou on wealth or property has been 
an act of justice. _ , p • ■ t,- 

The honorable Senator from Georgia speaks of oppression in hia 
State Sir I will now call the attention of the Senator to a class of 
people who are indeed oppressed in his State and plundered of their 
substance, and whose daily toil is no guai-antee against daily oppres- 
sion. I refer to a half million of colored people. So grievous are 
their wrongs that they are leaving the State. The statistics will 
sliow that daring the last eight or ten years tliousands ot the labor- 
intr population of Georgia have Hed because of oppression many 
of "whom are settling in Mississippi. The Vicksburgh and Meridian 
Railroad, in Mississippi, transported several thousand emigrants from 
Georo-ia over its line last year. All these immigrants, as they passed 
through our State, told the same story of oppression. Ihey said: 
" The colored people have no rights which a Georgia democrat is bound 
to respect. We are seeking a country where we can have civil liberty, 
enjoy the privileges of freemen, and eat in peace the bread our own 
hands have earned." . 

Mr President, in this connection allow me to refer to a convention 
recently held in Georgia-a convention of Georgia democratic plant- 
ers • and to show the animus of that convention toward the negro, 1 
will quote the language of one of the speakers, a Mr. W. D. Murray. 
In his address Mr. Murray said : 

I have practiced whipping some of my negroes lately, and I always make the 
viotimlpmrnise not to prosecute me wliile the chastisement is going on. In this 
■way I manage to keep my negroes under perfect control. 

There is the statement of a Georgia planter, made only a few days 
ago in a convention in Georgia. Yet we are informed by the honor- 



52 

able Seuiitor from Georgia that the negro is treated well in that State ; 
that he is protected iu all his civil and political privileges in Georgia. 
Another speaker, one Mr. .Statt'ord, said he was iu favor of memorial- 
izing the State Legislature to pass a lawmaking it a misdemeanor to 
entice laborers away from Georgia farmers, iuducing them to move 
westward. 

I will read an extract from the Atlanta Herald njjon this subject : 

The iiej;TO is reinai'kablo for his love of locality. lie jirncially pref(?r8 to stay 
around tlie old farm place where he was raised, and will do so uiilVss all the condi- 
tions tempt him to leave it. The single obstacle of full, high-priced railroad fare 
would settle the matter with two-thirds of theiu. 

It is a notorious fact that in many districts where the colored peo- 
ple are in large majorities the right to vote is abridged by the whites 
through one device and another. 

But, says the honorable Seuator, "Under the wise administration 
of the goverumeut of Georgia their lands are so valuable that a ne- 
gro cannot buy them, and because of the maladministration of affairs 
in republican Mississippi, lands can be bought there for five cents an 
acre." Well, Mr. President, I am not surprised to learn that laud is 
held at a very high value by a Georgia democratic planter when a 
negro proposes to buy it, for they maintain the same doctrine that 
they adv(jcated in 18(i5, wdien they attempted to prohibit the negro 
from purchasing land by law. 

I call the attention of the honorable Senator to the value of land 
in Georgia as compared with tlie land in Mississippi. According to 
the census report of 1870 I find the aggregate value of land in Geor- 
gia to be $268,169,207; in Mississippi, $209,197,345. Georgia contains 
nearly twice the area of Mississippi, and it is a much older State ; 
and yet the lands in Mississippi are nearly as valuable in the aggre- 
gate as those in the large State of Georgia. I leave the Senator to 
draw his own conclusions as to the comparative value of laud iu the 
face of these statistical facts. 

Sir, the colored Georgian comes to Mississippi for his rights, not for 
land. Not one in a thousand of the poor negro immigrants under the 
benign, wise, and prosperous democratic administration in Georgia 
has been able to accumulate money enough to buy land even at live 
cents an acre. They bring to Mississippi niusch- and hibor, and we 
in return give them liberty, equal personal i)ri vilegcs and rights, under 
the laws of our State. 

The Senator vaunts before the American Senate and the country 
that in Georgia "uo negro sits at a white man's table," and that in 
Mississippi social equality obtains, and that is one of the reasons 
he assigns for the ra,])id emigration from this State. He represented 
to the Senate that because (d' the inducements of social equality held 
out in the State of Mississippi, because the negro was allowed, as he 
had been informed, " a seat at the white man's table," he was leav- 
ing Georgia. The Senator said "There is no such equality between 
white men and negroes in Georgia, thank God!" He had heard 
that it is different iu Mississippi. Mr. President, I undertake to 
say, and I believe, that it is different in degree. I trust it is. I take 
this occasion to say that some of the most highly esteemed citizens 
of Mississip]ii, men who are "to the manner boru," who in the ques- 
tion of blood, brains, and bullion will com])are with any of our friends 
of Georgia, have so far rid themselves of irrational prejudices as to 
recognize the claims of the colored man to eqiuil i)riviiegos at thea- 
ters, on steamboats, and in liotels, and allow the people to enjoy 
equal privileges. In the State of Mississijipi we have a civil-rights 



law that gives to all onr citizens eqmxl privileges, equal rights, and 
equal protection. I am happy to say that in the State of Mississippi, 
in some degree at least, a man is esteemed hy the standard of char- 
acter, of manhood, and not hy the color of his skin. Virtue, intelli- 
gence, and patriotism are appreciated in Mississippi though they are 
inclosed in a colored skin. I can readily understand and most fully 
appreciate how honorahle and high-miuded men can shrink from con- 
tact with the low and the base, with murderers and assassins, be they 
black or white ; but I fail to estimate highly the arrogant assumption 
which vaunts itself that a man is too good to associate with his 
equals, and perhaps superiors, because of a difference in the color of 
his skin. I will presuine to say that the American Senate places no 
very high value on any such display of accidental superiority. Frohi 
my observation I do not understand that the colored people of Geor- 
gia, or anywhere else in this country, have any very inordinate desire 
to be entertained at tlie Avhite man's table ; but they do desire to 
be recognized and protected in their rights uiuler American law the 
same as the wliife people. Tliat is the kind of equality the colored 
people of the South s(!ek. They seek it in Georgia, but they seek in 
vain. They come to Mississippi and they have these rights, and they 
will continue to have theui if the American Congress and the Ameri- 
can people can be led to appreciate the present conditi(m of affairs 
and give us protection. But unless we have it, oiu- civil-rights law 
will be a dead letter. Unless we have that protection, the whire- 
leaguers who have murdered our citizens by the hundreds in the 
streets of Vicksburgh in the last month will control the State, and 
the poor negro will be in a worse condition than he was under the 
service of his former master. 

The honm'able Senator from Missouri thinks that the colored men 
ought to divide tlieir votes between tlie two parties. 

The honoral)le Senator can rest assured of one thing, that the col- 
ored people of the South will be very reluctant to divide their votes in 
favor of a party whose leading representatives in the United States 
Senate and in the national Capitol proclaim their inferiority and 
herald their degradation. When tlie poor negro understands the fact 
that a democratic Senator can here in this Chamber put himself out 
of the way to parade the fact that in democratic Georgia white men 
do not recognize the eipiality of their colore<l fellow-citizens, they 
will be very loth to divide their votes with such a party or to sus- 
tain surh men. 

In this connection, and as an offset to the low estimate the honor- 
able Senator from Georgia places upon his colored constituents, I 
shall beg the Senate to bear with me wliile I read the testimony of 
the Hon. Eftingliam Lawrence, of Louisiana, to the good cliarac-ter 
and rapid progress of the colored citizens of tliat State. This testi- 
mony speaks volumes in favor of the wisdom of reconstruction, and 
ought to cover with sluime the democratic malcontents wlio would 
deuy him justice and who undertake to grind him down and degrade 
him. It also sliows that aiuong the (dd-time slave-owners of Louisi- 
ana there are some men at least who reprobate the diabolical pro- 
gramme of the white-leaguers. 

I read the following extracts from a letter of Mr. Lawrence, pub- 
lished in the Xew Orleans Kepublican, August 23, 1874 : 

The men who, while contemplatinsr the negro eiiicrjiinK from a hondaae of centu- 
ries and still enibanasseil by the presence of isiiorancc. tiiniility, and si-fvility that 
belonjifil to bis loniiri' scifdoiii. and making his tir-^i <-s>.i\ s as a citizi-u with the 
politicalexptTiciicf of less than Icn years, would i-niic-ci llir Jiiistakes. failures, and 
imperfect eUbrts of tliis brief experimental period, and thereupon in.slitute a con 



trast between the negro and the white man, and ahonld conchide from snch com- 
pariiou that ueKio citizeiisliip is a failure, and tliat the negro shouUi be remitted 
sulistuntially to his foniii-r condition as a political chattel, not a political entity 
coutrolluig iiis null action, hut a political vahu- to he controlled hy white men, un- 
generously estimates hniiiaiiity and but poorly apjireciatcs either the temper of the 
times <ir tile civilization of tlie age. 

A furtlier sirious olijection to the race-movement is found in the prescriptive 
methods sugj^asted by its advocates for controlling the negro vote. They would 
ostracize the white liiau who honestly gives counsel to the colored masses, and 
would withhold eiiiiiloyinent from the'negTO worker ; and, thus deprived of leader- 
ship and impoveiislu-(l, without homes, and without bread, the negro masses 
will become docih' and easily induced to act in hainiony with the resident whites. 
This is a monatrdux ]iroiiositiou, both in tin; ends conteniiihited and the danuerous 
agencies used to accomi)lisli it. It suggests the idea that tlie man who hires his 
muscles to honest toil that he may make honest bread sells his conscience as a citi- 
zen to the purchaser of his labor, and proposes that no bronzed son of toil shall 
iave awarded to him by the intelligent conservative white men of Louisiana the 
right of uuiirosciilied work, excejit on the condition that the worker .shall yield to 
his employer his honest political convictions. If the negro citizen would for an 
instant yield to the demand thus conditioned, he would jirove thereby not only his 
incompetency for but his uinvorthiuess of citizenship. 

In common with my Anglo-Saxim kindreil, I am not indifferent to the roputation 
and claims of my race to pre-eminence, and feel an hoiioralile pride in the fact that 
I am a Caucasian. But the pride that leads the supeiior race, exultant in its 
strength, to domineer over the inferior, is a questionable virtue in the American 
system. 

Like Dr. Taylor, I had the responsiliility attachiniz to the owtiership of three 
hundred slaves, nor could I feel that flieir eiuanciiiatiou released me firmi the obli- 
gation to care for them. I have deemed it not only expeilieiit liut a dtity, as oppor- 
tunity offered, to do what I could for their intelligent adv.auccment in the now 
sphere in which they as suffragans have been called upon to move. 

' Nor have I lieen di'sappoiuted in any reasonalde exiiectation relative to them 
either as a political or industrial element. They have increased in ntimbers, made 
creditable progress in education and in the acquisition of the material comfortsof 
life. As an agricultural community, owning comfortable homes and a sufficiency 
of good lands, su|iplied with schools and churches at their doors, they are con- 
tented and imiiroviiig ; and in tlirift, industry, and obedience to law and decorous 
conduct they will compare favorably with aiiy agricultural community in this or 
any other State in the Union. I have not attempted to control their party aflilia- 
tions, nor to suggest how they shall use their franchise, further than to advise them 
of the importance and necessity of casting their liallots for competent and honest 
men. They regard me as a friend, and would, I believe, give due consideration to 
any proper suggestions I might make. 

But I state to their credit that no personal friendship for me would induce them 
either to abandon, as a class, their political convictions or to vote for other than 
men of their choice. Yet I think they would be ))erfectly open to frank and 
kindly appeals which look to the accomplishing friendly relations with the 
whites and the securement of good local government in the State. I can very 
readilj- perceive how the colored men as a class should have given their first politi- 
cal preference to the nati(mal iiarty which played so important a part in securing 
their personal freedom and political rights. And to a siiniileininded and trustful 
race, their surroundings and antecedents considered, any proscriptive or coercive 
measures, direct or indirect, looking to the control of their political action, seems 
not only suspicious and threatening, but indicative of a danger to them that will 
simply drive them f urthur from the party so acting. 

The honorable Senator makes a plea for peace and reconciliation. 
In this I join with him most heartily. I liad hoped that peace had 
indeed come when in 1872 the democratic ])arty was ntterly van- 
quished. I conoratiilated the country upon its demise, particularly 
the South, which had suft'ered more than any other part of the coun- 
try from its political teachiuos, its corruptions, its treason and rebel- 
lion. I liojiod tlnit its last chapter of treason and bloodshed had 
closed, and that a new era of peace had dawned npoii the South ; but 
alas tlie i)arty has revived again, and lo, turmoil tmd .social revolu- 
tion follow. Intimidation, disorders, jtrostriition of business are 
upon us. 

When bu.siness men who come to the South with a -snew to help 
revive our wanino; industries by investing their capitiil discover dis- 



■orders; when they witness the terrible mnrders at Coushatta, the 
revolt and bloodshed of the 14th of September; when they see all 
over the conntry men associating themselves in secret organizations 
to set the law at defiance ; when they see the social revolution, they 
are not disposed to hazard their capital; for no characteristic of 
capital is better understood than this : it is always timid in seeking 
investments. Capital always counts all its surroundings ; and 1 
undertake to say that the prospect of a democratic victory in 1876 
has done more to paralyze the industries of the South than anything 
that has happened in the last fifteen months. The panic of 1873 is a 
simple circumstance, the merest bagatelle, compared to the appre- 
hensions entertained by the business portion of the southern people. 
They know and feel that a democratic victory would lead to an utter 
prostration of business in the South. 

I again appeal to oiu- southern democratic friends not to indulge in 
the delusion that the democratic party is now coming into power. 
This delusion you entertained in ISiiO. You believed then that the 
democracy in the North would stand by your revolutionary enter- 
prises. You were told by some of the leading metropolitan j(Hirual8 
of the country th at if President Lincoln or the republican party should 
attempt to "coerce a sovereign State" it woiild prostrat^, the indus- 
tries of the North, ruin its commerce, grass would grow in the streets 
of New York City, the owls and bats would make their nests in the 
looms of Lowell. Some democratic orator of Illinois said if any of 
Lincoln's slave-hunting hirelings should attempt to force a State back 
into the Union they would have to march over the dead bodies often 
thousand Illinoisians ; but when in your madness you struck a blow 
at the Government, when you tore down the flag from Sumter, what 
was the result ? The first'men who flew to the capital and tendered 
ti'.eir services to the Government were the men who but a few weeks 
before had been loudest in their professions of sympathy for the 
South. Prominent leading democrats of the North were here on their 
knees before Mr. Lincoln pleading for commissions as brigadier or 
mnjor generals to lead the Yankee Army and strike down with shot 
and shell the southern insurgents. And so it will turn out in thiscon- 
spiracy. I will undertake to nroffer this advice to our southern demo- 
cratic friends: do not count 'too strongly upon the assistance of the 
northern democracy. Let me remind you that it was upon their 
pledges of S7mpath'y and support you based the success of your enter- 
prise in 18(50. 

I tell you the democratic party of the North and the White League 
democracy of tre South are comi)osed of widely difterent elements. 
Thei-e is patriotism, there is love of order in the democratic party of 
the North ; they hive lived under a different kind of civilization ; and 
when your party \\ith its present temper and tendency shall develop 
its work of revolution, you will find the democratic party of the North 
will forsake you as t;.\ey did in 1861. 

The democracy of tie South during the period of reconstruction and 
ever since has been aumgonistic to the policy of the Government. I 
will not detain the Seuite on this point, but I desire to sul>mit some 
of the laws that were parsed in the ditt'erent Southern States relating 
to the liberties of the people, some of the most infiimous laws that were 
ever enacted in the historj of civilized legislation. 

The following are some (f the provisitms of the "black code"_ of 
Mississippi, denominated in the statute-book "An act to confer civil 
rights on freedmen, and for ither purposes," approved November 24, 
1865: 



5G 

Be it enacted, cSc, That all freedmen, free negroes, and mulattoes, may sue and 
be sued, implead and be impleaded, in all the courts of law and equity of tlie 
State, and may acquire personal property and choses in action by descent or pur- 
chase, and may dispose of the same in tlie same manner as white persons : Pro- 
vided, That the provisions of this section shall not be so construed as to allow 
any freedman, fiee negro, or mulatto to rent or lease any lauds or tenements ex- 
cept in incorporated towns or cities in which places the corporate authorities shall 
control the same. 

Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That every freedman, free negro, and mulatto shall 
on the second Monday of January, 1866, and annually thereafter, have a lawful 
home or emploj-ment, and shall have written evidence thereof. 

Sec. 7. Every civil officer .shall, and every person may, arrest and carry back to 
his or her employer any fi-eedman, fiee negi'o, or mulatto who shall have quit the 
service of his or lier emiiloyi'r before the expiration of his or her term of service; 
and said offlccr or iieisini .sliall be eutilli'd toi'eceive for ari'esting and carrying back 
every deserting (■iii|)loy6 aforesaid the sum of hve dollars, and ten cents jier mile 
from" the place of arrest to the place of delivery, and the same shall b(^ i)aid by the 
employer, and lulil as a set-oif for so much against the wages of said employ^. 

^C. 8. Uptm the atUdavit made by the employer of any freedman, free negro, or 
mulatto, or auy credible person, before any justice of the peace, or member of tUe 
board of police, that any freedman, free negro, or mulatto employed by said eni- 

Eloyer has deserted said emplojanent, such justice of the peace, or member of the 
oard of police, shallissue his warrant, retainable before himself or other sucli officer, 
directed to any sherifl', constable, or spe<ial deputy, commanding him to arrest said 
deserter and return bun or her to said employer, and tlie same proceedings sliall be 
had as lu'ovided in the preceding section. It sliall be lawful for any nilicer to whom 
such warrant shall be directed to execute said warrant in any couuty of this State, 
and said waiTant shall be tran.smitted witlmut iudcirsement to auy like officer of 
another county, to be executed as aforesaid, ami the said eiuiibiyer sliall pay the 
costs, which shall be setotf forsomuoli against tlie wages cif said ileserter. 

Sec. 9. If any person shall Icnowingly eui]ili>y any siii'h deserving freedman, free 
negro, or mulatto, or sliall sell to auy sucli tieeihnaii, free negro, or mulatto any 
food, raiment, or other tiling, he or she .shall lie guilty of a misdemeamu'. and upon 
conviction shall be lined not less than twi'uty-tive dollars ; * * * and if said 
fine and costs are not innniMliately paid, the court shall sentence said convict to not 
exceeding two iiionllis im]iiis(ui!iieiit iu tlu' c(Hinty jail, aud he or she shaK more- 
over be liable in damages to the paity injuiedT 

Seetion 2 of au act to ameutl the vagrant laws of the S^ate pro- 
vides : 

All freedmen, free negroes, or mulattoes in this State over the age of eighteen 
years found on the second Monday in Januajy, 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful 
employment or business, or found assembling themselves together e/ther in the 
day or night time shall be deemeU vagrants, and on conviction shall be lined fifty 
dollars. * , * * * * * 

Sec. 5. That all fines collected under the provisions of this act shall bepaid into the 
county treasury for geneial county puiposes, and in ca.se any fi'eeduuiu, free negro, 
or mulatto shafl fail for five days after the iiupo8iti(m of' any hue or forfeiture 
upon him or her for violation of any of the provisions of this act tJ pay the same, 
then it .shall be, and is hereby, made the duty of the sheriff of theproper county to 
hire ovit said fieediiian, free negro, or mulatto to auy person who will fiu the 
shortest period of service pay said tine or forfeiture and aV costs. Preference 
shall be given to the em]doyer, if there be one, in which •asf he shall be entitled 
to deduct and retain the amount so paid from the wages of such freedman, free 
negro, or mulatto then due or to become due; and iu cas» such freedman, free 
negro, or mulatto cannot be hired out, he or she may be deaA with as a pauper. 

Sec. 6. In order to secure a supp(n't for such indigent fre'dmen, free uegr-oes, and. 
mulattoes, it shall be lawful, au<l it is hereby made tin' dui^" "f the bonds cd' county 
police of each county in this State, to levy a pollorca|pita.ion tax on eiicli and every 
freedman, free negro, or mulatto, between the ages id iigliteeu and sixty years, of 
one dollar annually to each person so taxed, which \>4ieii collected shall be paid 
into the county treasurer's hands and constitute a f<ud to be called the " f reed- 
men's paupei- fund," which shall b<^ apjdied by the /ommi,s,siuneis of the poor for 

the maintenance of tlu' ] ■ of the ficedmen, 'free i^groes, and mulattoes of this 

State, under such ri'gulalions as may be establishe/by the boards of county police 
in the re8i)ective counties of this State. / 

Sec. 7. Be !t furthn- enacted. That if any freediian, free negro, or mulatto .shall 
fail or refuse to iiay any tax levied accord'ing to Me provi-sions of the sixth section 
of this act, it shall be prima facie evidence of va/iancy, and it shall be the duty of 
the sheriff to arrest such freedman, free negro, a mulatto, or such person refusing 



57 

or npclpftiiis to pay sucli tax, and prococd at once to hire for the shortest time 
such il(liii([ii(iit tax-payer to any one wlio will pay thesaid taxwith accruinj,' costs, 
givinji prt-ttTeuce to the emploj'er if there he one. 

The same kind of legislation adopted iu Mississipiii was enacted in 
all the other Southern States. I call attention to the character of 
this legislation in the various States, which I will not detain the Sen- 
ate by reading but ask the Clerk to insert. 

ALABAMA. 

Bill passed making it unlawful for any freedman, mulatto, or free person of color 
in this State to own tire-anus, or carry' about his person a pistol or other -deadly 
weapon, under a penalty of a flue of $100 or imprisoument three mouths. Also, 
making it unlawful for any person to sell, give, or lend fire-arms or ammunition of 
any description whatever to any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, under a penalty 
of not less than fifty dollars nor more thau one hundred dollars at the discretion of 
the jury. 

TENNESSEE. 

January 25, 18f!6, this bill became a law : 

That persons of African and Indian descent are hereby declared to be competent 
witnesses in all theeoui'ts of this State in as full a manner as such persons are by an 
act of Conuiess competent witnesses in all the courts of the I'nited States, antl aU 
laws aud i)aits of laws of the State exiludiuL; such jpersons from competency are 
hereby repealed: Vrorhlnl. hmrrr.r. Tlial this act shall not be so construed as to 
give cohireil persons tlie li-hi i,, voie, Ik.M oiliee, or sit on Juries iu this State; aud 
that this provisi. Ill isinseiied hy virt ne of t lie provision of the ninth section of the 
amended constituti(m, ratified February 2:^1805. 

LOUISIANA. 

December 21 this bill became a law : 

Section 1. That any one who shall persuade or entice away, feed, harbor, or secrete 
any person who leaves his or lier employer, with whom siie or he has contracted or 
is assigned to live, or any apjireutiee who is bouud as an apprentice, without the 
permission of his or her eiii]ilo\ ir, said jierson or iiersous so oli'ending shall be lia- 
ble for damages to the employer, and al.^o, upon conviclimi thereof, shall be subject 
to pay a fine of not more than -f.'iOO nor less thau ten dollars, or imprisoiunent in 
the parish Jail for not more than twelve mouths nor less thau ten days, or both, at 
the discretion of the court. 

GEOKGIA. 

March 20, 1866. — Crimes defined in certain sections named as felonies are reduced 
below felonies, aud all other crimes punishable by fine or imprisouuieut, or either, 
shall be likewise puuishaUle by a fine not exeeeding $l,oi)t). iniprisonnu-ut not ex- 
ceeding six months, whipping not exeecilinu tliirty-uine lashes, to work in a chaiu- 
gang on the public works not to exceed twelve months; and any one or more of 
these prmishmeuts may be oi'dered iuthe discretion of the jiulge. 
SOUTH CAKOLINA. 

An act preliminary to the legislation induced bv the emancipation of slaves, Octo- 
ber 19, 1865.' 

Section 10 provides that a person of color who is in the employment of a master 
engaged in husbandry sh;xll not have the right to sell any corn, i-ice, pease, 
■wheat, or other grain, any flour, cotton, fodder, hay, bacon, fresh meat of any kind, 
animal of any kind, or any other product of a farm, without having written evi- 
dence from such master, or some person authorized by him, or fi'om the district 
judge or a magistrate, that he has the right to sell such product; and if any per- 
son shall, directly or indirectly, purchase' any such product from such person of 
color without such written evidence, the purchaser and seller shall eaoh be guilty 
of a misdemeanor. 

Sectiou 13 states that persona of color constitute no part of the militia of the 
State, and no one of them shall, without j)ermission in writing from the district 
judge or magistrate, be allowed to keep a fire-arm, sword, or other military weapon, 
except that one of them, who is the owner of a farm, may keep a shot-gun or rifle, 
such as is ordinarily used in huutinu, but not a pistol, nniskct, or other fire-arm or 
weapon approtuiate for ]iurposes of war. Tlie district judge or a magistrate may 
give an order, under which any weapon unlawfully kept may be seizeil and sold, 
the proceeds of .sale to go into the district court fund. The possession of a weajiou 
in violation of this act .shall be a misdeme.inor which shall be tried before a dis- 
trict court or magistrate, and iu case of conviction, shall bo punished by a flue 
equal to twice the value of the weiipon so unlawfully kept, and if that be not 
immediately paid, by corporal punishment. 

Section -^2 provides tliat no person of color shall migrate into and reside in this 
State unless, within twenty days after his arrival wiiTiiu the same, he shall enter 



58 

into a bond, with two freeholders as sureties, to be approved by the judge of a dis- 
trict court or a magistrate, in a penalty of 81,000, conditioned for his good behavior 
and for his sujiport, if he should beinme nn;il)le to support himself. 

Section 27 provides that wlienever, under any hiw, senteiiee imposing a fine is 
passed, if the tine and costs he n<it immediHtely ])aid. tliere shall lie detention of the 
convict, and sulistitntinu of (itheriiiniishmi'nt. If theotfense should not involvethe 
crimen faUi. and V>e infamous, the sulistitution shall be, in tlie case of a white per- 
son, imprisounient for a time proportioueil to the line, at the rate of one day for eaeh 
dollar; and in the caseof a person of color enforced labor, without unnecessary pain 
or restraint, for a time proportioned to the fine, at the rate <d' one <lay for eaeh dol- 
lar. But if the offense should be infamous, there shall be substituted for a fine, for 
imprisonment, or for both, hard laljor, corporal punishment, solitary conlinement, 
and confinement in tread-mill or stocks one or more days, at the discretion of the 
judge of thesuperior court, the district judge, or the- magisti-ate who pronounces the 
sentence. In this act, and in respect to all crimes and misdemeanors, the term 
servants shall be imderstood to embrace an aj)prentice as well as a servant under 
contract. 

December 21 : An act to establish and regulate the domestic relations of persons of 
color, and to amend the law in relation to paupers aud vagrancy. 

A parent may bind his child over two years of age as an apprentice to serve till 
tw enty-one if a male, eighteen if a female. All persons of color who make con- 
tracts'for service or labor shall be known as servants, and those with whom they 
contract as masters. 

Colored children between eighteen and twenty-one who have neither father 
nor mother living in the district in which they are found, or whose parents are 
paupers, or unable to aftbid them a comfortable maintenance, or whose parents are 
not teaching them habits of industry aud honest.y, or are persons of notoriously 
bad character, or are vagrants, or have been convicted of infamous offenses, and 
colored children, in all cases where they are iu danger of moral contamination, 
may be bound as apprentices by the district judge or one of the magistrates for 
the aforesaid term. 

It provides "that no per.son of color shall pursue or practice the art, trade, or 
business of an artisau, mechanic, or shopkeeper, or any other trade, emplojTnent, 
or business (besides that of husbandry, or that of a servant under a conti-act for 
service or labor) on his own account and for his own benefit, or in partnership 
with a white person, or as agent or servant of any person, until he shall have ob- 
tained a license therefor from the judge of the district court, which license shall 
be good for one year only. This license the judge may grant itpon petition of the 
applicant, and upon lieing satisfied of his sikill'and fitness and of his good moral 
character, and upon payment by the applicant to the clerk of the district court of 
$100, if a shop-keeper or peddler, to be paid annually, aud ten dollars if a nu'chauic, 
artisan, or to engage in any other trade, also to be paid annually: Fravidrd, how- 
ever. That upon complaint being made and proved to the district judge of auabnse 
of such license he shall revoke the same." 



An act to punish vagrants and vagabonds, January 12, 18G6. 
Section 1 defines as a vagrant " every able-bodied person who has no visible 
means of living and shall not be employed at some labor to sirpport himself or 
herself, or shall be leading an idle, immoral, or profligate course of life ; " and may 
be arrested by any juistice of the peace or judiie of the county criminal court and 
be bound "in suiftc'ient surety" foi- lio.hI In liavior and future industry for one year. 
Upon refu.sing or failing to give such secmity. he or she may be comiuitted for 
trial, and, if convicted, sentenced to labor or imprisonment no't exceeding twelve 
months, by whipping not exceedioLr thirty-nine .strijies, or being put in the pillory. 
If sentenced to labor, the ■■ slierilf or other otlieer of .said court shall hire out such 
per.son for the term to which he or she shall be sentenced, not exceeding twelve 
months aforesaid, and the proceeds of such hiiiug shall Ix^ paid into the county 
treasury." All vagrants going armed may be disarmed by tlie sheriff, constable, 
or police oflicer. 

An act prescribing additional penalties for the commi8.sion of offenses against the 
State, and for other jiurposes, January 15, 1866. 

Section 1 provides that whenever in the criminal laws of this State, heretofore 
enacted, the i>uuishment of the offense is limite<l to fine and imprisonment, or to 
fine or imiirisoumeiit, there shall be suiicradded as an alternative the i)unishmcnt 
of standing iu tlii^ pillory for an hour, or whipi>iug not oxceedingthiTty-nine stripes 
on the hare liack, or botli, at the iliscretiou of tbe jury. 

Section Iv! makes it unlawful for any negro, mulatto, or person of color to own, 
use, or keep in jjossession or under control any bowie-knife, dirk, sword, fire-ai'ms, 



59 

■or ammunition of any kind, unless by license of the county .judge of probate, under 
a penalty of forfeiting; thein to tlie informer and of standing in the pillory one 
hour, or be whipped not exceeding thirty-nine stripes, or both, at the discretion of 
the .jui'y. 

Section 15 provides that persons forming a military organization not authorized 
by law, or aiding or abetting it, shall be fined not exceeding $1,000, and imprison- 
ment not exceeding six miiiiths, or he pilloiied for one hour, and be.whi])ped not 
exceeding tliirt.v nine stri[ies. at tlic di-^cretiou of the inry. The penalties to be 
threefold upon persons who accepted odices in such organizations. 

No. 35. — An ordinance relative to the police of negroes recently emancipated within 
the parish of Saint Landry. 

"Whereas it was formerly made the duty of the police .jury to make suitable regu- 
lations for the police of slaves within the limits of the ])arish ; and whereas slaves 
h ive become emancipated by action of the ruling powers ; and whereas it is neces- 
a iry, for public or<ltT as well as for the comfort and correct deportment of said 
f eedmen, that suitalde rej;ulatious should he established for their government in 
t leir changed coudiliou, tlie followiug ordinances are adopted: 

Section 1. Be it urdained by tlie ■police jury of the parish of Saint Landry, That 
no negro sh.all be allowed to |iiiss witliin the limits of said parLsh without a special 
permit in wilting from his employer. Whoever shall violate this provision shall 
p i.y a fine of $2.50, or in defaiiU tliereof shall be forced to work four days on the 
p.iblic roads or suffer corporal punishment, as provided hereinafter. 

Sec. 2. Be it further ordained. That every negro who shall be fottnd absent from 
the resideuci' of Ills employer after ten o'clock at ni.ght, without a WTitten jverrait 
from his ciiiployer, shall pa.y a fine of five dollars, or in default thereof sliall be 
compelled to woilv five da.ys on the public road, or suffer corporal punishment, as 
hereinafter proviiled. 

Sec. 3. He it further ordained. That no negro shall be permitted to rent or keep 
a house within said pari.sh. Anv negro violating this provision shall be immedi- 
ately ejected and compelled to find an employer; and any person who shall renter 
give tlie use of any house to any negro in violation of this section shall pay a fine 
of five dollars for eaeli otFense. 

Sec. 4 Be it furtin r vrdnln.'d. That every negro is required to be in the regular 
service of some wliiti' ] in son or former owner. But said employer or former owner 
may permit sai<l ne^rn Xn hire his own time by special permission in wi'iting, which 
permission shall not extend over seven days at :niy one time. Any negro violating 
the provisions of tliis scetion shall be lined live dollars for each offense, or in de- 
fault of the payment thereof shall he forced to wcnk live days on the public road, 
or suffer corporal ]iiniislinieiit as liereinafler provided. 

Sec. 5. Beit further ordai aed. That no public meetings or congregations of negroes 
shall be allowed within said parish after sunset; but such puhlic meetings and con- 
gregations may be held between the hours of sunrise and sunsi't, hy the sjiecial per- 
niissi(m in writing of the captain of patrol within whose lieat sucli ineclings shall 
take place. This iirohihition, however, is not inteiiiU'd to yirevent negroes from at- 
tending the usual eliurch services cundueted hy white luinislers and |)riests. Every 
negro violating the provisions of tliis section shall pa.v a tine of five dollars, or in 
default thereof .shall be coni]ielle(l to work five days on the public road, or suffer 
corporal i>unishment as hereinafter provided. 

Sec. 6. Be it further ordained. Tliat no negro shall be permitted to preach, exhort, 
or otherwise declaim to congregations of eolmed people, without a s]>icial iiermis- 
sion in writing from the president of tlie police .jury. An.y negro vinlaling the pro- 
visions of this section shall ]i;i.v a line of t<n dollars, or in default thereof shall be 
forced to work ten days on tlie public road, or suffer corporal punishment as here- 
inafter provided. 

Sec. 14. Be it further ordained, That the corporal punishment provided for in the 
foregoing secti(ms shall consist in confining the body of the oll'ender within a barrel 
placed over his or her shoulders in the mannei' ]iracticcd in tlie Ainiy, such con- 
finement not to continue longer than twelve hours, and for such time within the 
aforesaid limit as shall be fixed by the captain or chief of iiatrol who infficts the 
penalty. 

Such, sir, was the general character of the legislation in the Sonth 
for three or fonr years after the war. Is it to be wondered at that 
the negro continues to distrust the men who ninde these cnnctinents; 
or can the American people trust to tln^m the liberties and siiltrage 
■of the colored people of the South and the giiardian.sliip of the princi- 
ples established in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend- 
ments ? 

Mr. President, before I close my remarks I desire to say one word 



60 

in relation to the State of Mississippi and what the republican party 
has done there. And I will say at the outset that Mississippi is proud 
of her reconstruction and her republican record. She challenges any- 
State North or South to show a more rapid progress in proportion to 
her advantages, or a government freer from reproach considering her 
circumstances and surroundings. The democrats left her without a 
dollar in her treasiuy, a banlirupt not only in fortune but in cliarac- 
ter. We have seen how her democratic Legislature of 1865 and 18G6 
added to her embarrassment and her shame by i)utting upon the stiit- 
ute-books some of the most infamous laws that have disgraced mod- 
ern civiUzation. 

When the work of reconstruction commenced, this very same seces- 
sion democracy counseled the people to have "nothing to do with 
the unclean thing." When the question of framing a new constitu- 
tion was pending and an election was ordered l)y the military govern- 
ment, thedemocratic leaders said to their friends " Keep away from the 
polls, have nothing to do with it," and they succeeded in dissuading 
a large portion of the intelligent people from participating in the 
work of reconstructing the State. Tlie result was that a convention 
met in Jac-]<son composed largely of colored men. But let me say 
that the white republicans did everything in their power to induce 
the southern men of Mississippi to come forward and give their aid 
and assistance and the beneiit of their counsels in framing the organic 
law of the State. But no ; the democratic press and the leading 
democrats of the State threatened and intimidated the people, as they 
are doing now, to act against their better judgment. 

What is true in Mississii)]>i was true in almost every southern' State. 
Wlien the proposition was made for them to accept the fourteenth 
amendment to the Constitution, it was spurned with contempt, as 
they have spurned and resisted every step in the progress of recon- 
struction, under the lead of the same rash, tiery, intractable men who 
would now overthrow the results that have been wrought out and 
who are determined to do so peaceably if they can — forcibly if they 
must. 

Notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, notwithstanding the 
opposition of the democracy, we succeeded in framing a constitution 
that we are indeed proud of. It will compare favorably with the 
organic law of any State in any country, and tliere is one feature par- 
ticularly to which I will allude. In tlie constitutional convention a 
liroposition was offered by a rciiublican, an adventurer, as they are 
called by way of opprobrium, that the credit of the State should never 
be loaned to any corporation, and that was opposed by the democratic 
members of that convention. In 1869 under the resubmission act of 
Congress, when the question came up as to whether we would retain 
that clause in our constitution, the leading democratic pai)er in that 
State, the ])a]ier that to-day is howling about the plundering and 
robbery and the terrible condition of the South brought about by mis- 
rule under r('])ubli(ans, advocated voting that clause of the constitu- 
tion out. But the loyal, patriotic republicans of Mississippi voted in 
its favor, and to-day as a consequence our debt is only nominal, is a 
mere bagatelle. 

After we had fi-amed and ado]ited our constitution we continued 
the work of reconsinutiug our State. We found its treasury empty, 
not a dollar iii it. The democracy had robbed the State of all its trust 
fund. W(! coiiHueiu'ed the work of re])airing our public l)ui]diug8. 
We found the cajiitol ready to fall to tlie ground ; we found our asy- 
lums for the l>lind, the deaf and dumb, and for the insane, in ruins ; 
we have repaired and rebuil tthese public buildings ; we have estab- 



61 

lished a school system e(in;il to that of any State in this Union, and 
to-day in Mississippi nuder repnhlicau rule one hundred thousand 
chiUli'en are driuking from the fountains of knowledge ; we have 
biiilt up our jails and our court-houses; wo have rebuilt the bridges 
that were burned during the devastation of war. We have accom- 
plished all tiiese things under republican rule, and to-day the State 
is not in delit to exceed a million dollars, and she owes most of her 
debt to her own trust fund. We can pay every dollar we owe, and 
will in less than two years. We have swept out the abominable " black 
code" that disgraced the statute-books of Mississippi; we have sub- 
stituted an equitable system of taxation in the place of the imjust 
and oppressive revenue laws formerly in existence ; we have consti- 
tuted good courts and tilled them with good judges ; we have estab- 
lished universities and normal schools for both white and black citi- 
zens. Our government has been enlightened and progressive. No 
distinction lias ever been made between citizens and no spirit of in- 
tolerance or proscription has ever prevailed against any class of men. 
One of the first things we did was to remove all restriction upon the 
right of sulirage and to instruct our Senators and Representatives to 
favor universal amnesty in the national Legislature. Up to the time 
of the Vicksburgh election last sunnuer universal peace and good-will 
reigned throughout the State. That it does not now is due eutii-ely 
to the democratic White League. 

The expenditures of our State government are less by a number of 
thousands of dollars this year than they ever have been any year since 
the war, and the present feeling and tendency of the republican party 
is in favor of the utmost economy in our State. And I may say that I 
believe this is true of every republican State South. What is the 
present political status of Louisiana and South Carolina in this re- 
sjiect ? Is it not a fact that they are improving and reforming? 
Ls it not true that the State of South Carolina is better governed to- 
day, that there is more economy, that they are ou the road to reform? 
And what is true of South Carolina is especially true of Louisiana. 
Under Governor Kellogg's administration they have reduced and 
limited the indebtedness of the State, and lessened taxation almost 
one-third. Thei'e has been a system of economy and refoi'm inau- 
gurated ; and vet the democracy have the audacity to say that the 
tendency of hings South under republican administration is destruc- 
tion and th pe pie are therefore justified in these revolutions. You 
woukl think, to hear them talk, that there had never been anything 
but virtue in the South until the advent of the "carpet-baggers;" 
but that since the Gstablisliment of rei>ublican rule, virtue, patriotism, 
and honesty are unknown. We have had bad men, Mr. President, 
I do not deny it, but most of them have been driven out from our ranks 
and are in the democratic party to-day. 

One word, Mr. President, if the Senate will bear with me, on this 
question of " carpet-baggers." Sir, we are a nation of '' carpet- 
baggers." "Carpet-baggers" landed npon Plymouth Rock in 1620; 
"carpet-baggers" founded the first colony on the James ; and "car- 
pet-baggers" have pioneered and settled every State a tul Territory of 
this Union. Wherever civilization makes an advance it is tlie carpet- 
bagger that makes it. Why, sir, out of twenty governors of Missis- 
sippi prior to the war only one was a native of the State, and out of 
fifty-nine members of Congress and Senators who represented Mis- 
sissijjpi in this Ca]iitol before the war only three or four were " to the 
manner born." I (h)ubt not tliis is Irue of all oiu- Western States. It 
is the feature of our civilization. Here is a list of carx)et-bagger8 in 
the present Congress: 



m 



[Note. — The word "native," signifies tliat the member is a native of the State, 
and "foreigner," tliat he is a uon-native or foreigner; the few unknown being 
classed as non-native.] 



States. 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina. . 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania . . . 

Ehode Island 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts . . 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi.. 

Mis.souri 

Nebraska 



C native 

\ foreigner. 

( native 

\ foreigner. 

( native 

\ foreigner. 

< native 

\ foieigner. 

( native 

) foreigner. 

( native 

) foieigner. , 

( native 

( foieigner. 
( native... .. 
I foreigner. 
5 native.. . . . 
\ foreigner. 

( native 

I foreigner. 

( native 

I foreigner. 

C native 

X foreigner. 
( native.,. . . 
\ foreigner. . 
( native , . . . 
\ foreigner. 

( native 

I foieigner. 

( native 

\ foreigner. 

< native 

\ foreigner. 
( native .. . , 
\ foreigner. 

C native 

I foreigner. , 

C native 

\ foreigner. , 
( native .. .. 
\ foreigner. . 

\ native 

\ foreigner. , 
( native .. . . 
\ foreigrner. , 

( native 

\ foreigner. , 
( native . . . . . 
X foreigner. 

( native 

( foreigner. 
( native - . . . 
X foreigner. 

( native 

( foreigner. . 
( native . ,. 
X foieigner. 



63 



states. 



Nevada. 



South Carolina. 



Tennes.see. 
Texas 



Vermont. 



"West Virginia. 



( native 

\ fortdguer. 

( native 

( foreigner. . 

C native 

I foreigner. . 

< native 

I foreigner. . 

C native 

l foreigner. . 

( native 

I foreigner. . 

S native 

foreigner. . 



Wisconsin. 



( native 
I foreig 



ner. 



Total native 

Total non-native.. 



149 
141 



117 
130 



Why, sir, how did you expect to carry out your reconstruction ex- 
cept by the " carpet-bagger ? " You adopted the thirteenth, fourteenth, 
and fifteenth amendments, and put on paper some very wise legisla- 
tion in regard to tlie rights of American citizens. But, sir, legisla- 
tion don't carry itself into ett'ect. It was the " carpet-bagger " that 
carried out your legislation, and at the risk of his life put the ballot 
practically in the hands of those to whom you had given it as a 
right. Without the "carpet-bagger " your amendments and your leg- 
islation would have been a dead letter, and unless he is sustained 
the work already accomplished will come to naught. 

Mr. President, I hfive endeavored in my humble way to show to 
the Senate in the first place that this great clamor that has been 
raised in this country over Louisiana was perfectly groundless. I 
have endeavored to show that the President of the United States, in 
his action in Louisiana, has done nothing more and nothing less thau 
he was required to do under his oath, to uphold aiid sustain the Con- 
stitution. 

I have shown that the military officers in command of the Army in 
the State of Louisiana have simply obeyed the law. I have shown 
that all this outcry about "military usurpation" and the "terrible 
blow struck at liberty " iu the removal of five men from the legisla- 
tive hall in New Orleans is groundless and for a purpose. I have en- 
deavored to show that so far from a legislature being invaded, it was 
nothing but a mob ; and that the five men who wt'ic ejected from the 
hall had no right to be there participating in its organization. I have 
endeavored to show that there was such a condition of things in 
Louisiana thfit the governor of that State was authorized and re- 
quired to do what he did ; and had he done anything less he would 
have been derelict of his duty. When he had the evidence that the 
law was being trampled under foot, that a mob had entered the very 
legislative halls, he called upon the poi^fic comitatus to preserve the 
peace and protect the majority of that Legislature from mob violence^ 



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64 014 544 679 P 

I say he callerl the j^ossc comitntiis, and I have endeavored to show that 
in calling upon the military he was justified under the laws of the 
country ; that it is a well-established principle of connnou law both 
in England and this country that the posse includes all citizens, not 
excepting persons in the military service. 

I cited to sustain this position the opinion of a most distinguished 
lawyer, the Hon. Caleb Gushing, to the eftect, that a conservator of 
the peace has a right to call upon the military of any denomination 
or character as a jJosse comitatiis ; and therefore, the chief conserva- 
tor of the peace in Louisiana was justified in calling upon General De 
Trobriaiid and his troops to assist him to preserve the peace. 

I have endeavored further to show that this hue and cry about the 
condition of aft'airs in the South, the plundering of the people by 
"adventurers" and "strangers," is for the most jiart gotten up for po- 
litical eifect, and is not founded on facts. I have endeavored to 
show that outrages, murders, and assassinations have been prevalent 
in the South, and that organizations of men, led on by a vile " ban- 
ditti" for the purpose of overthrowing the southern governments, 
exist there ; and the fallacy and absurdity of the attempt made by 
the opposition to make it appear that these statements are only for 
partisan eftect. 

In closing, I desire to say to my democratic friends, I desire to say to 
the distinguished Senator from Ohio, [Mr. Thurmax,] that instead of 
palliating he ought to denounce these things. I have great confi- 
dence in his patriotism ; I admire his ability as a statesman ; and I do 
not believe that if he understood the facts as I understand them, if 
he knew the real condition of aftairs in the South, he would hesitate 
to give them his censure. I call upon him to investigate this matter 
and carefully weigh the facts that have been presented, and I say to 
him that if he as the leader of his party in the Senate would stand in 
his place and denounce these outrages and say to these miserable 
murderers at the South, " Stoji your murder, stop your assassination, 
and if there is not force and power enough in your State governments 
to punish you, we will see that the strong arm of the National Gov- 
ernment will reach to you ; " if the Senator will make that announce- 
ment, and it shall be known that that is the policy of his party, we 
shall hear no more cries about outrages in the South. Every base 
Ku-Klux and white-leaguer will disajipear ; we will have peace and 
quiet in that country. But so long as these uiurderers and their inhu- 
man and diabolical crimes find a kind of a[)ology in the very Halls of 
the national Capitol, so long we shall sufter violence and outrage and 
revolution, and in the end, in my humlde jutlgment, if continued it 
will result in the overthrow of our republicau institutions. 



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014 544 679 A 



